268 20 10383 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/b14b125bbef63a37847eec15aa6c29b3.pdf 00c16258cd9ad350649c938f5782bd6b Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. ... . . ., Mrs . L. H. P ound 675 Am s lerdam Avenue AJanta, Georgia 30306 Dear ayof Allen: Congr e tula tions upon your stand ab out future demonstra tions and riots of the colored folk. They are anything but "pea c f ul a ssemb li es" a s e ll of us know, nd it i s a bout time they st opped fr om their t hreats of riots unless the world is ha nded over to them. lt i s cert a inly intimi dat ion, which if it i sn't unla ful, should be . And so I s ha ll loo k for a rd, as a ll good sensible people ill be , to the results obtained by your new st and. S incerely ~- (>- ~ ~- ~~ � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Mrs. L. H. Pound 675 Amsterdam Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30306 Dear Mayof Allen: Congratulations upon your stand about future demonstrations and riots of the color- ed folk. They are anything but "peacful as- semblies"” as sll of us know, and it is about time they stopped from their threats of riots unless the world is handed over to them. Li is certainly intimidation, which if it isn't unlawful, should be. And so I shall look forward, as all good sensible people will be, to the results obtained by your new stand. Sincerely NAM - Oa! Was pt .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 87 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/80cbb530217610ea90bf09932625fc52.pdf 1d4c4778953950fc8ada5849f4c35be8 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. • • • • • • • • • • • C LASS O F S ERVTCE 4 ~ . T his is o. fas t message u n lcy, its deferred char~ actc,~s i hdicatcd by t he .~r oper' sym bol. WESTERN UNION W . P . MARSHA LL CH A IRMAN OF T HE BOARD T ELEG AM ® - SYM~BOLS DL = D,y Letrcr N L = N ighc Letter R . W. M c FALL P RESI D EN T LT - I ncernatio nal - Letter T elcgra.m The filing time shown io che date line on domestic telegrams is LOCAL TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is LOCAL TIME at point of destination VAH383 A LLH188 PD 11 EXTRA FAX ATLANTA GA 7 506P EDT MAYOR IVAN ALLIN JR CITY HALL 68 MITCH£LL ST ATLA ATLANTA, GA., AS YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW IS A CITY THAT RAS A GOOD REPUTATION IN SO FAR AS RACE RELATIONS .AR£ CONCERNED • TJE FEIL THAT THIS LENDS ITS SELF TO GOO» BUSINESS CLIMATE BUT WE HAVE REPORTS J'ROM YOUR RECENTLY OPENED HOTEL THE REGENCY HYATT HOUSE THAT CAN CAUSE THIS CLIMATE TO BI SOILED. WE ARE TOLD THAT NEGRO GUESTS AT THIS FACILITY HAVE BEEN TREATED DISCOURTEOUSLY.. wt HAVE BEEN TOLD or THE GROSS DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES WHICH AR£ PRACTICED BY THE HOTEL IN EMPLOYMENT UNLIKE THOSE IN SUCH FORWARD CITIES AS WASHINGTON, DC. AND OTHERS WHIR£ OUR STAFF HAS HAD OCCASION TO VISIT. NEGROES IN YOUR PLACE ARE DENID> MERIT EMPLOYMENT. sFt2oicR2-oo> W£ HAVE CAREFULLY SURVEYED YOUR HOT[L FOR SEVERAL WEEKS • • • . .J • • • • • • �• • • • • • • • • • • . 1 f'l1 L[\ r--. -=:;:: 0.. I'-,. ~ ~ r-- . r ~ ...•. . .... -:- f 1i .._ ~ ... ... •rt. "T ) - J ... , ..., . , 51551 ' J ·:i , A- • • l· -.__.,.. ! ... . l '• ( . . ~., -. ~·. • • • • • • • • • • �• CLASS OF SERVICE "' This is n fast m essage " •.· • t - - -YMSBO LS unless its d eferred char.. • • • • • • • • • WESTERN UNION ac~ is indicated by the ' o rope symbo l. < '--'-'-- -~ W . P . MARS H ALL CHA I RMAN O F THE BOARD T ELEGRAM DL = D ny Letter NL = Night Letter R . W . M c FALL PRESIDENT ® LT-lnterm1tion a l - Letter Tel cg ram The filin g time shown in the dace line on domestic telegrams is LOCAL TIME t point of origin. Time of receipt is LOCAL TIME at point of destination AND ARI CONVINCED THAT YOUR HOTEL IS GUILTY or DISCRIMINATION IN THE ARIAS or EMPLOYMENT AND THAT THERE IS A RELUCTANCE TO EXTEND CERTAIN COURTESIES TO NEGRO PATRONS. WE THERITORE, URGE THAT AN IMMEDIATE CONFERENCE BI SCHEDULED BETWEEN OPERATION BREADBASKET, A DEPARTMENT or THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, DR. HARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., PRESIDENT AND TKt OWNERS or THE RIC£NCY HYATT ROUSE WE CANNOT OVIR EMPHASIZE THI IMPORTANCE or THIS MATTER JD GRIER CALL MAN OPERATION BREADBASKET REVEREND FRD C BENNETTE JR EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OPERATION BRIAKBASKET(42) • SF120l(R2-65) • • • • • • • • • • • �• • • • • • • • • • • ' l'n LC) /,,. .. r---'0.. """ ) r---- =_) J .. . . r -,. , t--- ,o c, ..- f • '1('1(1 ., I '. 1 1 51552 •J .. ,., ·-· ' .' ") A- .. ' • • • • • • . • • • • � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Crass OF SERVICE “This is a fast message Pf uplesy its deferred char- ‘| actetwis ihdicated by the proper symbol. W. P. MARSHALL CHAIRMAN OF THE BoaRD TELEGRAM WESTERN UNION R. W. McFALL PRESIDENT r SYMBOLS ‘ DL=Day Letter NL=Night Letter Lhe International q ale Tester Telegram _J The filing time shown in the date line on domestic telegrams is LOCAL TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is LOCAL TIME at point of destination _ VAH383 | A LLHi8s PD 41 EXTRA FAX ATLANTA GA 7 506P EDT MAYOR IVAN ALLEN JR CITY HALL 68 MITCHELL ST ATLA ATLANTA, GAo,y AS YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW IS A CITY THAT HAS A GOOD REPUTATION IN SO FAR AS RACE RELATIONS ARE CONCERNED. WE FEEL THAT THIS LENDS ITS SELF TO GOOD BUSINESS CLIMATE BUT WE HAVE REPORTS FROM YOUR RECENTLY OPENED HOTEL THE REGENCY eee © G80 86 Oe le i ® ‘SF1201(R2-65) HYATT HOUSE THAT CAN CAUSE THIS CLIMATE TO BE SOILED. WE ARE TOLD THAT NEGRO GUESTS AT THIS FACILITY HAVE BEEN TREATED DISCOURTEOUSLY ® WE HAVE BEEN TOLD OF THE GROSS DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES WHICH ARE PRACTICED BY THE HOTEL IN EMPLOYMENT UNLIKE THOSE IN SUCH FORWARD CITIES AS WASHINGTON, DC. AND OTHERS WHERE OUR STAFF HAS HAD OCCASION TO VISIT. NEGROES IN YOUR PLACE ARE DENIED MERIT EMPLOYMENT. WE HAVE CAREFULLY SURVEYED YOUR HOTEL FOR SEVERAL WEEKS . ' Sie) Waterss a Ss Cass oF SERVICE A Soro XY » This is a fast message 4 DL=Day Letter, a unless its deferred char- ‘ NL =Night Letter : ~ | © acti: is indicated by the W. P. MARSHALL TE L GR M. R. W. McFALL. . bropef symbol. CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD E A PRESIDENT International ® LT =) etter Telegram z The filing time shown in the date line on domestic telegrams is LOCAL TIME 3 point of origin. Time of receipt is LOCAL TIME at point of destination - 4 [Lew IS /y_ AND ARE CONVINCED THAT YOUR HOTEL IS GUILTY OF DISCRIMINATION _ IN THE AREAS OF EMPLOYMENT AND THAT THERE IS A RELUCTANCE TO EXTEND CERTAIN COURTESIES TO NEGRO PATRONS. WE THEREFORE, URGE - THAT AN IMMEDIATE CONFERENCE BE SCHEDULED BETWEEN OPERATION BREARDBASKET, A DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, DRe MARTIN LUTHER KING) JRey eee AND THE OWNERS OF THE REGENCY HYATT HOUSE WE CANNOT OVER EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS MATTER J DP GRIER CALL MAN OPERATION BREADBASKET REVEREND FRD C BENNETTE JR EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OPERATION BREAKBASKET(42)6¢ ~ 1 | eo ¢06e606 6 il : 2 @ ®@ @ @ ¢ Pe vl @ ah . T. pense ‘ eo . - ~ es GG =L Wd L Tar LIS  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 86 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/b34715a5d11ae673c8ad934e5912b393.pdf c1dd2c7d5bb47f4a90a3b657bfe6c8e8 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. From the desk of Cecil Alexander/ � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document - From the desk of Cecil Alexander/ Leg co ee aa  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 85 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/18c43c00ee51f86836237c7ea8857503.pdf b34125a533ed906ea84feae91fbb3600 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. . ATLANTA,GEOROIA FROM: Dan E. Sweat, Jr. 0 For your inform a tion O Please refe r co th e attached corr es pondence and -ma ke the necessa ry reply. O Advise me the status of the attached . FORM 25-4-S � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document > ATLANTA, GEORGIA ROUTE SLIP Dh. Otolnne nchenae ga 9 FROM: Dan E. Sweat, Jr. [_] For your information [_] Please refer to the attached correspondence and make the necessary reply. [_] Advise me the status of the attached. EE ics. Litittiezs woah. he. FORM 25-4-5  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 84 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/b92c6bc7a65ce36c394628a0978124e2.pdf c03c75036c34d8944c0dab6325ed6388 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. 137 Gri ffiin St., N. Atlanta, Ga . 30314 w. Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. Mayor City of Atlanta City Hall 68 Mitchell Street s.w. Atlanta, Georgia 30303 --· --· .--»~_,______ ~ -~--.,..-~ - --·- �- � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 137 Griffiin Si., N. We Atlanta, Ga. 30314 = et JUL19'S7 eae rae GA PB SESS Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. Mayor City of Atlanta ] i City Hall CER u [ F ia D aye 68 Mitchell Street S.W. , Atlanta, Georgia 30303 . EE ——— ————————— ————————— ee eS =e ll as / \ ee —" *\. 1 Kh | \ 3 . \ . 1 e, i \ - 4 | \ “| | a | ™ 1 : ‘ | ‘ ] as ‘ | | | ' 4  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 83 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/110dac5f80e227666a5977a0382918f7.pdf 4660423ff9264b3c5d856209cbe09234 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. Cfhe King of Kings and the Lord of Lords "He brought me into the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love" SONG OF SOLOMON 2 :4 �Welcome Your Majesty The Scriptures show that the Lord is present and we wish to be among the first to unfurl His banner of Love. Our own nartional emblem, just as do the flags of other nations, tend to separate people and seems to give those of every nationality the feeling "I am better than you." But with His Majesty that is not so. To Him we are all human beings, and all are dependant upon Him for life. Signs of His presence. In Daniel 12: 1 we read "And at that time (this time) shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of the people : and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation." In the second chapter Dani el tells of a "stone" that was to smite that great image upon the feet and break i,t to pieces. The image represented the Genti le governments of the earth, it struck in 1914 and continues to destroy the nations, and it is to become "a great mountain (kingdom) and fill the whole earth. It cannot be stopped for it is God's kingdom. Mountain means kingdom. This is that time spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel. " They shall seek peace and there shall be non e" ( Ezek. 7 :25). From the time of Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations until this time with United Nations and with President Johnson and many other fine men and \vomen pleading for peace, but all in vain. Our great Creator has reserved the honor of establishing peace upon the earth for His Son the Prince of Peace ( Isa. 9 :6 ). He bought that right by giving Himself as a Ransom sacrifice for Adam and his posteri,ty. Does not such a King deserve the fullest obedience and all the honor and praise possible for man to r.ender? And now let us consider the laws that shall govern His rei gn. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine hea rt, soul, strength and mind: ·and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. As ye would that others do unto you, do ye even so unto them." It is love, can anyone ask for more? Let us learn to love each other And treat each man as a brother Without regard to creed or race Without regard to time or place. Today the negro is hating the white man and the white man is hatin g the negro ; one is just as wrong as the other. Won't yo u be one of those to surrend er to His Majesty and lift up his banner of Love. Th e Lord says " This is the way, walk ye in it. " "Love ye one another." �Blessings for ·All' Turn to Isaiah 25 :6 and read " And in this mountain (kingdom) shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people, a feast of f~t things." The same prophet in chapter 35 says "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be un-stopped ." "And an hi ghway shall be there . . . And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads." " Yea, they shall sit every man under his own vine and fig tree and none shall hurt or make him afraid." "Then shall they say Lo , this is our God, we have waited for Him'.' " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thou ghts : and let him return unto the Lord: and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon." We suggest that all those int~rested in this line of thought write to the Dawn, in E.ast Rutherford, New Jersey. * * * Published by one of His Majesty's least, yet a most grateful subject. Sta nley Milton Tudor Box 93 Lowell, Michigan � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document CThe King of Kings and the Lord of Lords “He brought me into the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” Sonc or SoLomon 2:4 Welcome Your Majesty The Scriptures show that the Lord is present and we wish to be among the first to unfurl His banner of Love. Our own national emblem, just as do the flags of other nations, tend to separate people and seems to give those of every nationality the feeling “I am better than you.” But with His Majesty that is not so. To Him we are all human beings, and all are dependant upon Him for life. Signs of His presence. In Daniel 12:1 we read “And at that time (this time) shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of the people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” In the second chapter Daniel tells of a “stone” that was to smite that great image upon the feet and break it to pieces. The image represented the Gentile governments of the earth, it struck in 1914. and continues to destroy the nations, and it is to become “a great mountain” (king- dom) and fill the whole earth. It cannot be stopped for it is God’s kingdom. Mountain means kingdom. This is that time spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, “They shall seek peace and there shall be none” (Izek, 7:25). From the time of Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations until this time with United Nations and with President Johnson and many other fine men and women pléading for peace, but all in vain. Our great Creator has reserved the honor of establishing peace upon the earth for His Son the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). He bought that right by giving Himself as a Ransom sacrifice for Adam and his posterity. Does not such a King deserve the fullest obedience and all the honor and praise pos- sible for man to render? And now let us consider the laws that shall govern His reign. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, strength and mind: and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. As ye would that others do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” It is love, can anyone ask for more? Let us learn to love each other And treat each man asa brother Without regard to creed or race Without regard to time or place. Today the negro is hating the white man and the white man is hating the negro; one is just as wrong as the other. Won't you be one of those to surrender to His Majesty and lift up his banner of Love. The Lord says “This is the way, walk ye in it.” “Love ye one another.” Blessings for’ All Turn to Isaiah 25:6 and read “And in this mountain (kingdom) shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people, a feast of fat things.” The same prophet in chapter 35 says “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be un-stopped.” “And an highway shall be there . . . And the ran- somed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads.” “Yea, they shall sit every man under his own vine and fig tree and none shall hurt or make him afraid.” “Then shall they say Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him’.’ “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- righteous man his thoughts: and let him re- turn unto the Lord: and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abun- dantly pardon.” We suggest that all those interested in this line of thought write to the Dawn, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. * * * & Published by one of His Majesty’s least, yet a most grateful subject, Stanley Milton Tudor Box 93 Lowell, Michigan  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 82 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/67b9fcf132303e90550137d960ec1ee7.pdf e99e8e57e0eca40ca8fa27d3643e9d31 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. 14 Monday, September 11, 1967 THE CHR.ISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR • ·o etroit sifts through riot embers for racial lessons I By Ric~ard L: Strout Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Detroit Back and forth across the United St ates in this violent summer of 1967 we have · traveled now close to 9,000 miles. Some ·scenes have been idyllic; some poignant. The most shocking thing we have seen is the charred and angry scar in Detroit left by a riot which all but paralyzed the nation's fifth largest city for four da ys and took over 40 lives. On sleazy 12th Street, driving north one month later, it looks for a minute like Berlin after the bombing. Here a row of stores is gutted. Across the way plywood sheathes bandage smashed windows . A chimney rises in a burnt-out home like a cellar hole in an abandoned New England farm. Supporting I-beams still cant against sidewalls. There are pathetic scrawled appeals, "Soul Brother" meaning a Negro owner. A cast-iron radiator is held up crazily against the sky by its connecting waterpipe in what was formerly a second-story room. The room is gone. At its height the riot was like war; tanks trundled, machine guns spat at snipers, police sirens howled, fire trucks roared, arsonists laugh~d and looted. Officials looked down almost in tears on fires that seemed to cover the whole town. Here a city foug11t its own people. Cost-half-a-billion dollars. Has the lesson of Detroit been learned by the rest of the country? In this reporter 's opinion, no. The lesson is that if it can happen in Detroit in can happen anywhere. The forces of destruction an nihilism in American core cities <)re still there . Almost a model city ... Detroit was almost a model city in racial matters. There was a liberal mayor and governor, the most advanced summer program in the United States, and complete communication between officials and the supposed Negro leaders . It had two · articulate Negro congressmen and one of the biggest middle-class Negro communities in the nation. "We told ourselves it can't happen in Detroit," said Martin Hayden, chief editorial writer of the Detroit News. He speaks who wants all the facts but also feels the with the commitment of a newspaperman thing passionately as a human being. The feeling of security helped betray Detroit. Trying tactics that were successful a year b efore, police did not use firearms for a couple of hours while leaders tried t o " cool it" with bullhorns. The crowd grew. " There is no evidence that anything but an immediate and large show of force will stop a riot," says city expert James Q. Wilson of Harva rd . Compressed to oversimplification, here are three things the riot indicated t o some who lived through it. The National Guard isn't trained to handle a riot. Compared with the performance of seasoned regular Army paratroopers, who were finally called in, the guard's performance seemed to some "appalling." Second, the web of municipal life is more vulnerable t o civil disorder than ha s been supposed. The spontaneous, new-style guerrilla tactics of skip-hop, fire bombing can black out a city. Finally it is doubtful even yet if the natiol'l has much notion of what it is up against: a new, violent urban underclass set apart from the rest of the community. It is doubtful if Congress understan ds it. In a summer where 70 cities have been hit, the -House recently laughed off the President' s proposed ghetto rat-control bill, 207106. The reported mood in Washington is that new poverty funds should be withheld in or der not to "reward" violence. To an observer here it sounds a t rifle like reverse racism. Must all 520,000 Negroes in Detroit, out of a city of 1,600,000, be taught a lesson? One of the most striking things in following the ruins on 12th Street is to note how destruction stopped abruptly at the little lawns of the middle-class Negro homes on adjacent ;,venues. These property- owning Negroes have the greatest stake in law and order, as well as t he Negro shopkeepers whose businesses were sacked and gutted. The black-power m ilitants lump all whites together: "Whitey doesn't care! ~' It would seem tragic if white resentment should now lump all Negroes together and finally split the two races into warring camps. If social reform can be halted as a punishment for violence then nihilists and Communists can gleefully block it whenever they see fi t. There were whites in the Detroit mob. An editor, a state trooper, a Negro writer all told of the nightmarish carnival mood of the affair. The crowds laughed and looted. Recent United S tates census studies inclicate that the 1960 count missed many N.egroes, perhaps 10 percent. The highest loss rate wa s in young, adult males. The startling fact appears that one male in sue simply dropped out of organized society. But this invisible underclass was on hand for arson and looting. "Thi s can happen in any United States city where a sizable part of the population is unemployed and unemployable," says editor Martin Hayden. Causes are easier to find than amelioratives. The latter are probably more radical; anyway, than a nation preoccupied with Vietnam will accept. Well, I boldly offer the following proposals anyway. Law and order must be preserved; everybody agrees to that. More and more people believe that firearms· must be r egulated. The United States is the only great nation where this isn't done. Twenty-seventh in a continuing summe.r series of reports from a correspondent assigned to tour the United States, � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 14 %* Monday, September 11, 1967 By Richard L. Strout . Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor 7 Detroit Back and forth across the United States in this violent summer of 1967 we have -traveled now close to 9,000 miles. Some scenes have been idyllic; some poignant. The most shocking thing we have seen is the charred and angry scar in Detroit left by a riot which all but paralyzed the na- tion’s fifth largest city for four days and took over 40 lives. On sleazy 12th Street, driving north one month later, it looks for a minute like Ber- lin after the bombing. Here a row of stores is gutted. Across the way plywood sheathes bandage smashed windows. A chimney rises in a burnt-out home like a cellar hole in an abandoned New England farm. Sup- porting I-beams still cant against side- walls. There are pathetic scrawled appeals, “Soul Brother’? meaning a Negro owner. A cast-iron radiator is held up crazily against the sky by its connecting waterpipe in what was formerly a second-story room, The room is gone. At its height the riot was like war; tanks trundled, machine guns spat at snipers, police sirens howled, fire trucks roared, ! THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR Detroit sifts through riot embers for racial lessons arsonists laughed and looted. Officials looked down almost in tears on fires that»seemed to cover the whole town. Here a city fought its own people. Cost—half-a-billion dollars. Has the lesson of Detroit been learned by the rest of the country? In this reporter’s opinion, no. The lesson is that if it can happen in Detroit in can happen anywhere. The forces of destruction an nihilism in American core cities are still there. Almost a model city... Detroit was almost a model city in racial matters. There was a liberal mayor and governor, the most advanced summer pro- gram in the United States, and complete communication between officials and the supposed Negro leaders. It had two articu- late Negro congressmen and one of the biggest middle-class Negro communities in the nation. “We told ourselves it can’t happen in Detroit,’ said Martin Hayden, chief edi- torial writer of the Detroit News. He speaks who wants all the facts but also feels the with the commitment of a newspaperman thing passionately as a human being. The feeling of security helped betray Detroit. ' Trying tactics that were successful a year 1 1 ‘mood F, | of America before, police did not use firearms for a couple of hours while leaders tried to “‘cool it’’ with bullhorns. The crowd grew. “There is no evidence that anything but an immediate and large show of force will stop a riot,” says city expert James Q. Wil- son of Harvard. Compressed to oversimplification, here are three things the riot indicated to some who lived through it. The National Guard isn’t trained to handle a riot. Compared with the performance of seasoned regular Army paratroopers, who were finally called in, the guard’s perform- ance seemed to some “appalling.” Second, the web of municipal life is more vulnerable to civil disorder than has been supposed, The spontaneous, new-style guer- rilla tactics of skip-hop, fire bombing can black out a city, Finally it is doubtful even yet if the nation has much notion of what it is up against: a new, violent urban underclass set apart from the rest of the community. It is doubtful if Congress understands it. In a summer where 70 cities have been hit, the House recently laughed off the Presi- dent’s proposed ghetto rat-control bill, 207- LOG 3) Sas The reported mood in Washington is that. new poverty funds should be withheld in order not to “reward” violence. To an ob- server here it sounds a trifle like reverse racism. Must all 520,000 Negroes in Detroit, out of a city of 1,600,000, be taught a lesson? One of the most striking things in following the ruins on 12th Street is to note how destruction stopped abruptly at the little lawns of the middle-class Negro homes on adjacent venues. These property-owning Negroes have the greatest stake in law and order, as well as the Negro shopkeepers whose businesses were sacked and gutted. The black-power militants lump all whites together: “Whitey doesn’t care!” It would seem tragic if white resentment should now lump all Negroes together and finally split the two races into warring camps. Tf social reform can be halted as a pun- ishment for violence then nihilists and Com- munists can gleefully block it whenever they see fit. There were whites in the Detroit mob. An editor, a state trooper, a Negro writer all told of the nightmarish carnival mood of the affair. The crowds laughed and looted. Recent United States census studies indi- cate that the 1960 count missed many Ne= groes, perhaps 10 percent. The highest loss rate was in young, adult males. The start- ling fact appears that one male in six simply dropped out of organized society: But this invisible underclass was on hand for arson and looting. “This can happen in any United States city where a sizable part of the population is unemployed and unemployable,” says editor Martin Hayden. Causes are easier to find than ameliora- tives. The latter are probably more radical, anyway, than a nation preoccupied with Vietnam will accept. Well, I boldly offer the following proposals anyway. Law and order must be preserved; every= body agrees to that. More and more people believe that fire= arms must be regulated. The United States is the only great nation where this isn’t done. Twenty-seventh in a continuing summer series of reports from a correspondent as- signed to tour the United States, ee al A A  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 81 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/af8c8708b7d3627d1761440003e80360.pdf 25e2ee4bd2af62d56b59179b4f6f7c16 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. THE SUNDAY JfJIOrT:Poffreniensc.tttfflOl't~, wlllte """1 lrt,lit) ~'-t1t11tflop~ 5 ~ 1.'11!:lteJ:i• on the deadly economics of segregation: the lime-bomb inthe core of the American city ~ GENERATION OF DESPAIR TO GET an idea of the despair lhls background Stokeley behind Amerk:a's me riots Carmichael, the apostle of Black Powe r , calls fur af;~s143.215.248.55:b~f ~~or; tl\143.215.248.55-Ja It ~:ran f143.215.248.55er~~: .Britain. ~ We are not used to think andviolentdemud. Butthe ing of America in images of current pre_dicament of 1he poverty: and evenif1re were, Nero is as 1mmodente. The the portrty which afflicts the Negrostrtionsof a city like ;~o !~j~hi\gfr~-.~~ a Detroilisof a kind so bizarre in the South, of Cil·il Rights as to make any European workers, have produced only threecom•1ctions,andnosen· experience Irrelevant. tencc()fmoretha, tenyears. The whole story takes a lot And even moderate Negro of telling. But there are IOIJ}e facts whicb can be leaders fr~I admit their ~(t~rre~ i~J:~ ~~e"~tm~i143.215.248.55 ~1 a~ea~e~: lhescopeandsubt!etyofthe h:fu!:,k;~ ., ~~uf~:nA::;fc~n a moment when Amenca s worse after all we've bee,, through.. there's something fe -Onein1hreeoftheNegroes 0a143.215.248.55; t;~on~ilie~::. :~: in most Northern cities are Je:Vs, the u.nions-the whole unemployed, or as good as 143.215.248.55 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST)r v::143.215.248.55 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST)c/ as H~?! ~!~ Ja~:~pbof; adrt~ ~~r~itt!b143.215.248.55 such faithin theabililyof survey); thissociety tomm·ethathe's a~dressingonlytheNegroes." - ....To.irteeayE>ars after the Supreme Court outla11,ed \1, ACCORDING1.9 Walfer l.ipp. there ls more segregatlon m theschools thane1•erbefore; ~!~~cte/ c: me~e~~:i'ir: ..nfhs! race problem as we know Ills -In aperiodofunparal!eled really theby·productof our boom, after six years on steady economic expansion, plan!ess: ~isordered, bedrag· gled, drifting democracy, medianincomesin theurban "Until we ha1·e learned to g h e t t oes (where most Negroes live)hn edecreased ~i~::b-Od;.v:~~be~~-t during the 1960s. a ·self.respecting sta~us, This is also after sel'eral guaran.tee his ch•ll liberltes, years or u n para l l e l e d and bringeducationandp!av to him, the bulk of our ta)k 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST)e ~~ w143.215.248.55h about ' the raceproblem'w1II true. A tragic. automatic mechanism has been exposed ~~m:ind1~;.ni~\~fu:t"i~h:lolii"e in American sociely, through relation between black men which nearly every attempt to andwhitewi!lbe a dirtyone. helplhepoor-andthepoor In a clean civilisation the two are. basically, the Negroes-- racescan conduct their busi, has been transmuted into a ness together cleanly,andnot device for making the rich unti!then." richer and lhepoorpoorer The s l uggishness of The kind of irony confront- America's response lo thil ing America is that the indictment is indicated by i~ Feder,al money for the urban date. Lippmann was writing renewal programmes - running thisyearat £200million in 1919. Th at was the " Re« ~1~i: ;i~fu:i1:f:C~in~s10wft\ Summer," the Jirst or th, hot ones. More thaa middle-class housing, which long twenty race battlP~ flared IQ the slum-dwellers cannot the streets that s_ummer, afford. seven of them cxplodmg.int, The situation is one !n majorriots. ln the bl.oodte;\ which a city like Detroit can be seriously regarded as erupting in ChicJgo m Jul, " liberal" - although nn ~71:~t~hft~s Two myths IK'r,·ad* tlit 143.215.248.55li~~ou143.215.248.55p1rr:srath:fe slncethcearly firties. Against subject. The first i~ lhll. /iigh~~::::n~:~pei:::rre~faiid w143.215.248.55l~~ a:g{:~ ~;~1ineJ.ric America has been g_rappling llrith the problem ~mce the rivll war a century ago. (This ls commonly ad1·anced in Britain to demonstrate that ~ you cannot legislate the bearts o[ men.) The second lr!fihis, .thatthe upsurgeof \•1olencemthe~egroghetloes of American c1tJes owr the last rou r Jears is a new ~henomenon The central truth is that, right until the end of the &eetind 11orld war, American Government \\aS, at least ~~i~aai: ni~:U~1~ee:r~c:~yi '\l,·oodrow _Wi)son-the man Jlroudly bringing freedom to turope at the <'lose of the 6.rst world war-adual!y im· ~~:al ::~~i~~!ti~~ th1: sa~~ period,only the intervention of the Supreme Court pre· vented the imposition of for~al ~part!ieid through u m \ i:omng legislation - • 'w,dmledh!omany yemtoargulngti,at you couldn't legislate against prejudice -kn D. iiQal, 11.,1 1~,h,~111 Opptrtu1i1, C11ni11C1~ • Ernn Rooscvell's New Deal was segregationist. In the rur~l areas the A~r\cultu.ral Adjustment Adm1mstrat1on adjusted thousands of Negro sharecroppers off the land When these destitute refugees swelled the urban ghettoes, the New De al housing agen~ies turned out to have policicsrootedm the olddeal. One agen~y. the Federa!Housmg Admmistration, blocked mortgages on homes that Nesroes wanted to buy in whttesuburbs, The other, lhe United S t ate s Housing Authority, financed separate 143.215.248.55si: \it~roj~ ~vit~o~Y,bl143.215.248.55 black developments beeame merely extensions of the old ghettoes. Ell'ecth'ely, the New Deal t~hio~: ~\~:hJ:~;s0:e~\~ 1:~t:::~io~ system with sufficient stark· ness to ha\'e come to terms with the basic, eronomic nature of the Negroplightif anyone had wanted to look that hard. But the Negro emerged from the New Deal ifanythingworsethanhe had ~ ~~/143.215.248.55 segreBut in a back.handE>d way ~~r:1~: ~~! Na~lia~~:l ~i: b!h1~hab~~! Negroespinnedtheir faith for the next generation: the common front of the Negro organisations and the wh.ite labour unions. That alliance is arguably the single mo~t important reason why Amen· can rities enjoyed almost romplete racial peace for twentv.one l"ears up to 1964 As ]orig as the grouping held theNegroeshadatleastsome powerful allie~ - notably Walter Reuther's United Auto Workers-in the jobs market. ' .From the unions' point of view there was never much altruism Involved. They were simply shrel.l'd enough to see in the 1930s that. with ml\· lions uncmplovcd, the Negroes would make excellent strikebreakers unless cor· ralled. It was In Detroit, home of the United Auto Workers, that the alliance bet11·een i\"egrocsandthe unionsfinally sundrred in 1960, when the while craft unions and industrial unions rejoined fore~. andall the rraftunions old distrust of Negroes came to the fore. It was an ominous 143.215.248.55o143.215.248.55;~~ab~~e Pi:1 skilled and semi-skilled jobs, to procced.notatonc{',but merely "•,r1th all deliberate speed." As the Nes-roes h~~e learned withgrowmg bllter· ness, the court could not have handed the southern states a more ])('rfertly fashioned weapon for delay. Ten years later, sim·eying t~e rubble of the desegregation programme, a Suprl'me Court Justice 1'1S mol'l'd lo remark: "There has betn entirely too much deltbera· lion an~. not enough speed... Nor has the Government demonstrated anv m1'.lre alacrity to enforre·1he 11154 dectsion The 1964 Ciril RiahtsActwasclear: nomore [~~tr ~h:f~. st~u::iraef:~~ offab-Outl.900ofthrSouth's 2,200 school dis!ricts right 11 ot~~ Co~yresJd:~!t~t~ i ;r decided lo be lenient it was ten years since the Supreme Court dceision. but the schoolscould hal'e e1•cnmore time to ease themsel\"eS Into segregation. Th~ result goes !or to di1J1:/: ~~e Jo143.215.248.55e~~g~ s uereme Court promises of ln81hers143.215.248.55 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST) went to integrated schools: by 1965, 5.8percent.;today only 13 per cent ~ almos! l4ye_ars since the highest court m the Jand ruleditw:is el"efj' child's right ~r'~~"r~:~ ~Ge !~ 'Thefactisthatwhile \~r !,t1:: 143.215.248.55l~~f;gr~s 1i~ce workers on the lowest rungs o£the\adder In the Negroe~' po~t·war struggle for equality, the Supreme Court judgment of ~ ~: 01:gt~nsifl!~gr;[:~io~s i~ landmark But in fact the willingness of the C~urt to temper the Constilut1on lo the times emasculated the l'ietory. A c9nstilutiona! rig;ht. the Court ~:r:~~:r :t;~:~~1,-143.215.248.55 an1 ~~u~~ 143.215.248.55-b eJ:,~rnt~ ~~e; theUrhanleague ... hm been kying to nw,efourNegroesinto asuburhhichisnot In anyghetto man's future,400,000 tenement buildings in NewYonOty hm dettrioratedorbeen demtllshtd -ld1rfCt10,j,ScMfl 1fl1ci1I W1rl,CohmfitU1i1!f$i1J At the time the Supreme !hhee \~ro!hr~~ the Court handed down the Court's cautious 1954dedsion America. confront,d the unpreredenlcddccision that \Vas handed down, the pro· shortcom1 ngsofher economic de~gregation of schools was cesses which tore Detroit 1 •part thlsmonthhadbttnon the m()1·e a lrmi: trm<' /And t~~'i'ci~tih~n1':g~nJinda book. _published by Ebon)' magattne,hsts1tasoneofthe ten best cities for Negro employment.) Building the ghelto began fh!0~e;a£.~~m ~!~~\'n~ 11'1E>turnofthel"fntun!here has been a movement of !'i"egroes from the southern farm!andstotheurbannorth· impelled most 1·1gorousl_1 by ~: !et1~~-~i{d~_mf!°J~m~~li~~ havrmo,ed northsmre 1!!40 -amillionoftheminlhelai;l tmyears. Tuo.thirdso£all adult\egroe~ inthenorthem citieswerebomrnthrsouth. Mechanisation of the farms and theuseofchem1<a s,are making the shne<r11ppen, 1 fi143.215.248.55;~ aJtl~irnf\~s143.215.248.55 are expected to be out of work in the Mississippi delta ~~;so1~d143.215.248.55 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST)- an~.a~:ch143.215.248.55'. ~ "}!'t rni143.215.248.55':! ;~ R~tr att1tudesarc11ot unlikerhose seen in Britain durine- the Enclosures mo1·emen! of the ctghtrenth century·, Some of them have placed adl'ertisementsofferingto paythebusfares of any Xegroes who wanttogonorth. Somerura\ rountiesarestarving.outtheir super_A uous black tenants by rcfusmg to _take part in F~d!!r~I food-distnbut:on pro. grammes. W[llingor unwilling,scorcs of Negroes pack their card. board boxes e1·ery day and board the buses for Harlem WattsandDetroit. Theirlife has not usually helped them towards handling the urban experience: naturallvmostof them are_ trained· o~ly to chop,are11litcrate In the norther::i city centres, the1· find accommodation inbuildings \·acated 11:)iliu;~~oin3~ie~j:~~ pattemofwhite,middle,class America. The result 1s the e!timate of the Congressional Quarterly that by l9i0 at least fourteen CO!'t'·dties will ha1·e !)Opulations more than 40percent black. Th:-cchare pass«! that noint alrcad) Washington, Baltimore and Detroit ?Jr lh~ C111i19fd • •nt , . lea'"e school s~king better Jobs and homes than their parents now hare. Our welfare system, l'Jth all its defects. may yet prevent a coloured under<lass from 143.215.248.55i~!143.215.248.55e:~!nd;~!~i5o.°143.215.248.55 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST) many case. Britam is a lr~s violent society than the United States. Certainly these factors make it unlikely that rare riots will hreak out in Flritain's roloured communitiesdur!ngthenextfewyears, unless thev are started by W~1\"j~ 1WSh· ~:::i~g a! in ltlspossiblelhatthi!11ill happen. Forexarnple, J spoke recently in a We,1 London churth where there are two separateyouthclubs.onefor English. and the other for Indian children When, at my insistence, the Indian children were inl'ited to the 143.215.248.55 16:03, 29 December 2017 (EST)iJ :!!pf~~ ~r:v:01/c~ had to be talled to keep the pea~ The futuN> of racerelalionslnthatsuburb ts ir1 th~ hand~ of those children, 1nd it rnay well be 1io!pn1 Hnwe E>r, the _teneral ~itu at10n here, m contr~~t with Anthony lester �The death of Billy furr APPOINTMENTS � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document THE SUNDAY TIMES, 30 JULY 1967 DETROIT: Pelicesiea Scotter Tor cover while bers ight ite back at oan snipers HIINISTELELAE on the deadly economies of Segregation: the time-bomb in the core of the American city GENERATION OF DESPAIR thls background. Stokelay America has been grappling system with sufficient stark- to proceed, not at once, ‘TO. GET an idea of the despalr behind America’s race riots 5 a considerable effort from most of us in We are not wsed to think. = of America in images of ind even If we were, fe poverty salons at afflicts the ike a ev ae The whale fary, oa a Io. of tolling But there 3: some facts gua can a aan and rer 8 than a —tne in three of the Negroes in most Northern cities are unemployed, or as good ai unemployed (according to the latest Department of survey); Thirteen sage nites after ie there is ah the Tehoole th ‘than ever before; i jod of ey ja beam apie ean |, after ghettoes (where most Negroes live) have decreased during the 1980s. This is also after several years of mapire|teled faa ihe Negroes, ly one of which ha come ic meat le been man in American society, neve which nearly every np help the poor—and the are, basically, tbe Regs ‘been transmuted Into a device ioe aes the rich ficher and the poor poorer, The kind of irony confrost- ing America is that the Federal money for the urban Tenewal programmes — ren- ay this year at £200 million Betng divested into Te- Placing im dwellings with middleclass housing, which the slumedwellers cannot alford The situation tx one in which a city like Detrolt can be serio 7 Lyte since the iwente samp, Kins Carmichael, the apastie of ith the problem. since the Black Power, calle for tivil war a century ago, (This guerrilla war against the is ommonly advanced in whites, Jt is an dmmedersje Britain to demonstrate that and violent in Butthe “you cannot legislate the maf the ‘Searts of men.) nd da ay The "ik is that the upsurge of "3 rt of a context Violence in the negra ghettoes is whieh ‘ ety murders of American cities aver the in the South, of Civil Rights lest four am ip 2 new bs 7 peered ealy Phememendr three conv ictlon: no sen entral trath is that, tence of more than ten vears teh unt the end of the Awd even moderate Negro’ Second world wer, Ameriran Weaders freely admit their Government was, al least pmmathy with Carmichadl’s tacitly and. aly erp, desunciation. Bayard segregatlanlet President Rusti, lesder of the great Noodram Wiloo—the man WES Negra march on Con par ging freedom to What Stokeley ia-say- Europe a dese of the things have gat first urd canes es all we've been ie Be through, there's something federal servires, 1" the sane patie pene with the period, only the jatervention the liberals, the of Court iewn ‘the uniont—the whole vi Imposition of alliance whieh has not formal apartheid «th pitas victories, He’ racial zoning legislation. faith in the ability of Be coclety to move thet he's As id ly the Negroes.” ACCORD! mann, RST ESe ed commrt: iS race problems 8 als ie i ' the ee of our lisordered, bedrag- , ing democracy. “Wntil we have learned ta house everybody, employ everybedy at decent mae ca selfrespecting status, Suarantee his civil liberties, and tog efi and play) pie cag poten a ut the race problem” wi posed main 2 pee myth a a dirty civilisation rig, beeen Bek “Wher ede reteees white a dirty one! inxs a clean civilisation the twa te Ne bea u big ‘tan conduct their ibe te tog ean, nicl Pelicies rotted in the old deal until ther” Be mzumiernies att sluggishness of rica’s response to eee vated to a i Indictment [s indicated yi white suburbs. The other, ‘the cals, <r wr United States Hoang in] the “Re pubes, fae stl a twas the Projects ar Samo the first of ‘s ot thas tone tes ones. More thay black development battle: a reerely ertensons Of the, old ghettaes. Pits ee Pa was the fina ning of th Tis, noose rowed the Ney a lek: ‘The depression was Aes the fast ocean on mvc America confronted shortcomings of her etono ne you couldn't igi against prejudice Hes | Segal, Epual featermest Gopertatiy Cemmizi en ilan| 7 ‘dni Even Roosevelt's New Deal In the ipultural ‘Adjustment istration set jee of News rs of the land, subject. ‘The first if ness to have come to terms with the basic, economic nature of the Negro plight— if anyone had wanted to book the hard. But the Negro cane from the New Deal Aan: worse than he bad entered il: a de aan gre geled urban el But in. a back: im aed ay ihe New Deal did bring about the alliance on which the Negroes pinned their fxith tor the next generation: the com- fun frost of the Ne; Organisations and the white labour wndons. ‘That alliance is arguably the natn macel important reason why tan cities enjoyed pes complete rerial peace fir t Cees years a es ig as the groupl a the ae had at Ie: en rfl allies — notably iter Reuther’s United Auto Workers—in the jobs market From the anions’ point of view ‘(here was never math altruism involved. They were nla seem shrewd, ouoeh te to wee lions pea Negroes would make cellent es w cor he was in Ud home of the United A ‘Negroes and the unions fal sundered in 1960, when ity ane craft unions and indus- unions rejoined forces, and ail ike craft unions old distrust of Negroes came to the fore. Tk was an ominous ‘but tnevitable a As Sutomation ate up the un kitted and sensi-skilled jobs, the Negroes were onte a competitors of the white workers on the lowest rings of the ladder. In the Negroes” war against sey schoota is ndmark, But in fact the willingness of the Court to temper the Constitution ie & ilmes emascul constitutional eh ihe Gout had always maintained was “personal and could mot be eu single day. Until the Court handed down the unprecedented decision that desegregation of schools was merely “ with all duieeete 5 As the Negroes have Warned With growing bitter ness, the court could not have handed the southern Bates a more perfectly fashioned weapon for delay. Ten years later, surveying the rubble of the desegrega- entirely tot mach delibera- tion “and nok enotigh ne Nor has the Governoent demenstrited any more laerily to enforce the 104 64 Civil f hts Act was clear: no more eral funds (o segregabed Z hooks, That spall hare cat ‘OM about 1,900 of the Seuth’s rr school districts us uealion decided 10 be lenient: lt was ten years since the Supreme ‘ot ion, ‘the schools could have even more time to ease themselves into result pots far to Ne ges 5 ernment or r Mu ‘ort mises oO} action. An 1865 2 caf Negro fein in ie oath by 1965, 88 58 cae nae iv per cel only 12 per cent —almost 14 years since the hi court in the land ruled if was every child's right. 6 The fact is that while the Urban League... have beea trying to move four Negroes into a suburb which is not in any ghetto man's future, 400,000 tenement buildings in New York City have deteriorated or been demolished Hichard award, Scheel of Sica Work, Colambin Geiverii4y SSS At the time the Supreme Court's cautious 1954 ae was ers down, cesses, which tore “Tetra “— this month hed been on tote a feng time (Amd Detriot war, in a sense, a liberal city: tke Ne, hook, published by magarine, lists Ht a5 one of thi ten cities for Negro employment.) ales the ghetto began mt Debrodt, im Ever ance there as oa THvement nf Negroes from the southern ea io oe narib: the decline nf ‘a in ‘ihe cotton-finlde, Four million have moved north sare 104i) ia million mw in the last en years. Tundhiris of all adult Negroes in the eerthern elias Were born in the aouth, Mfechantsataon oi the farms, aed the use af chembpaes, ‘the The. ned Fe-CTApPTS tern 1s can- Negroes movement eighteenth century, them have pil advertise- ments offering to pay the bus fares of any Negroes who ated fo forth Some rural counties are starvingout their superfluous black aan by refusing to take part ip Frdera Ltood-distribation pro grammy Willing Or unwilling, scores Of Negroes pack thelr card- beard boxes every day and beard the buses for Harlem, Watts and Detroit. ‘Their life has not esuslly helped them ‘towards handling the orban experience: naturally out of them are trained to chop, are illiterate the — northera centres, they find aecom: modation in buildings varated by whites—whe are making for the suburbs in the classic pattern of white, middleclass ee rant is the imate ‘ongressional ‘Quarterly that hy 1870 at least fourteen core-cities will have papulations more thin 40 percent. black. Three have pissed that paint already ene Ballimere and city (Cenoed a net page AL LAST YEAR the frig question which Intelligent white people were hesitantly asking vee whether there req much discrimination agai it coloured peaple in Brit Suddenly this week the sume People io similar bewiler Tent, are asking there will soon be a ert au oy Side ae age oF ae “he to m a Sees = re to ae ae that hines tu never be as bad bere #5 in Detroit, And predictably th is let i Duntan Sandys former Commenwealth Secre- tary) to use lt as a reason to ct ail eclauredmsigration a revent the * mille of hall-caste hid ren "—s “generation of mlsfila," ‘Tha tint Question fs danger- ou hecsase © titillates ar latent fascination with viglence bul becamsg il eae an already wide- ritksh cucrcictinn thal ‘the abenace of Telenor i pen here soriety. We would do welll the Aceh of a political recall the monstrows of the Seathern entlen remedi are 4 hand, ug) te or have come t00 late to be th in Britain, it le senting to regard the pre- t nightmare of race rela a and im the States ax irrele- ee a it to our situation. After te Hy the coloured commanity Ut ea per cat af / rita ation ( ‘tent In ihe US), it largely of new rams, too insecurely tea ignorant of the ‘out: “ world, or too grateful {ta higher standard af life, indians, Indians Bn ay Princ hamper the deve. lipment nf strong inimlierent rt nai, and eaeeelsations Tt is still too Ow, toe fat th car ‘ 7 in white comenusity (hat the be children af poliared lnmt Grants wyii face sUbwigntial when = they thelr ‘ti ren 32 Many Neat omth Harlem, crite is often esl abcde way of MT f 4 livieg, and Lhe rare To fay @oreming tion Jeave schoo] seeking better jobs and homes than their reais now have. Cur wel- are system, with all ite defects, may yet prevent a coloured underclass from sinking 19 the depths of os North Areerican ghetto, And, in any case, Britain is a less violent society than the ou ee is rials Briain. tered: cara tits during the met few rears, _ Abey are sti i againel blarks, ax in bt iil in 1958. sh is oe that ee n Por example, 7 spoke receatly in a West ‘London church where there are teu separate youth clubs, one for English amd the other for Indian children = When, at my insistence, the Indian children were invited to the meeting and one brave 16 as sevepird, the police to be os th kee te fwiere ol rack Patton tnt tn, that ae band: TE: 6 children, aed it may val t Himwrver, ibe general sala alles ere, in contrat with ‘the United States, is lik ihe deceptively calm We a min ih dual aes 0 of " private prefer- ence” are creating palermo poss dieccimiae ion In howsing and enspl ment which it wil be ioe ‘gly difficult to break. We re ederating the children of tere immigrants, often in be ed by automation. In some places, complaints by coloured Britons ef police ndect owtnumber those ober subject. the coloured ehermimity ind that in the absence of any independent machipery to in ‘vestigate complaints, this vilal area of race relations will fester. Britais’s coloared minosity is too small to have palfitea) Significance, except is & Piten. ‘Wal scapegoat at @lection tiene. ‘There ix no aoe ae to which ee ively Fepresent nierest Mach al ybe afirial race Tae Hows machinery is deviated more to Barrens asd geet welfare than io premotiny racial equality, this peed extension of the act Relations Ac alters seme hope that we are at “ ty a wart fei me y extending the Act fo cover diserimination ateng and insur. ance, the Government can ensure thal in Brelain we shall have an oppertunity, which América Bas fae, fg use Law or before the Freie insoluble Race a ‘Beard bas ready deme better, from its pd at meriestness, than Mts tramcsat ee a fe winning 1 dence of eulvuned Pom it must now be allowed tackle the real prabiews of diserinal mation aoa ie must be given “ing power bo enfarre ihe la Tho allornatjves are clear We can privide effective redress for the wielim of dis triminalion, oT we cae compel (biey ts chease to aerepl Injuestice ng Wi talce bus grievances to The trees Fitain's polnared porpatalien, ts more ep) pul up we Injustice fn a rink, but does 9 rr} ised tnelely have aly chloe” Anthony Lester  ray fs 3° : I fl oes tt a een ie he Lt 3 Gil ial ali ai” ay Be wit eatita. | ee q sypeiaa eae Ne (ith aes dl it ; Lie aia | eee oe tt Eamrimmad bs page [T - z: ia atl aut! Hea ti li fe ial z sf * pepe ged. He eadiil sey vanes et tal ee ae te a : sitaas ital i Ht ‘aa att 3 gm eS Tt i a ae he Bul B si shin at ena THE SUNDAY TOMES, 20 JULY 1967 aieedce- =i ai pea es _ i ate inp i eel aay ‘ni z ian HH E flag e 5. avis i £ 4 eae = aT cre =y pues ei ae ae ee [ele ie oe A Bil Hee Hi ih Hy Hid ee eaaneds = Bh ty Eas fabs B east r ) e PERRET r Ran sae een [Bee BRE - Pom eg ae PE ane : Pais chiene ie wi Hie Bui = ce cee jets wis re ceirenr z ce ii ane Eth Hye i ane zai & { le io ne ? 3 Fall si, " ie al z 5 e 38 a a x z 3% EE Be she = ye : gttity 3 4 a piety fie in eh 5 = peaaia tla hy eath Eahicite dds oe a} 7 si Use eae fat recht iy mai me ie it senuiiet mE ITesge | Bie Gh li aa fc i “al bitin au alae yaa ene: oi =  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 80 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/3540adad67e102edc13e7b615e284ae8.pdf 3986e0cc4c74a156241113db7eed6f5f Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. n TO , ~ - °f4 Da n E. Swea t , FROM: ~ ROUTE SLIP Jr. r your i nform a tion D Please r efe r co the a ttac he d corresponde n ce a nd ma ke th e n e c essa ry re ply. D Advise me th e s t a tu s o f th e a ttac h e d . F ORM 25-4 - S � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Oflee of the Mayor ATLANTA, GEORGIA ROUTE SLIP TO: Naps (A Rlew? FROM: Dan E. Sweat, Jr. i For your information [_] Please refer to the attached correspondence and make the necessary reply. [_] Advise me the status of the attached. FORM 25-4-S  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 79 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/f48b1577d5fa472cb3b5728e5a095408.pdf 8471ba3bf67c1309fc9335fe8fa35818 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. • ' ,;,. _r Jo1·~ 1 ~~@~W Emory Universit Vol. 48, No. 8 Pcitie/6; }Jt. t. /(i1t9 lltte1td ~~e }Jteeti1t9 . CHANIN Dykes High School is located in northwest Atlanta at the corneli of Powers Ferry and Jett Roads across from Chastain Park. The fact of its location is insignificant as is the fact of its existence except that the institution serves to provide needed educational facilities to the immediate surrounding area. What is significant is the fact that few Negroes attend the school. Of course the reason for this is that very f ew Negroes live in the neighborhood serviced ,b y Dykes. Thus the imp'Ortant point is that very few Negroes live on the northside of Atla nta- in the social area known to r eaders of the hate sheet, the Northside News, as THE NORTHSIDE. Now it is not suggested that any person should particularly want to live in that area or to partake of its so-ca lled benefits : debutantes, snobbery and other pleasantries. But it is a very beautiful neighborhood with rolling lawns, la rge estat es, much green and, thanks to fine influence with the city, well-paved streets. In fact, the best possible in city services, in school, in all the things that go to make for gra-cious living are provided t'o the needy residehts living there. Need a t elephone installed, be right out, none of this cr ap about party-lines. Garbag e collect ed r egularly and streets, even the most out of the way ones, cleaned with little dela y. Yes, on the northside lives the wealth of Atlanta. The decision makers are there-the presidents of the companies, the senior partners ·o f the law firms, t h e doctors who claim that status brought by Piedmont Hospital. This is "Driving Club" land. And there are no Negroes. Read the social pag es of the Atlanta newspapers: no Negroes ever have parties, g et ma rried, or give •b irth to children. In fact n'One of this goes on a nywher e but the n orthside-if one trusts these newspaper s. Meanwhile the Biltmore Hotel was the host last week to the annual meeting o.f the .Southern Regional Council. At the banquet last Thursday t he people mixed-eolored and white, gentile and J ew. There were northsiders there. Seve ral weeks earlier the Regency Hot el was the site of the annual meet ing of t he S-outhern Christian Leadership Conference. Sidney Poitier, Mrs. Rosa Parks, and Dr . Marti n Luther Kin:g lead t he dignitaries. Mayor Allen was among t hem. And there were many northsiders t here. These annual meetings are important for two r easons. They indicate that there are those among the leadership of Atlanta who do not hold the normal views of the northside. These are the people who have been instrumental in developing the policies and pr ogr ams that have given Atlanta the progressive image that it has t oday and who have elected or seen to the elec- tion of the proper persons to carry out the policies and programs. The annual meetings also would indicate that the organizations sponsoring the meetings exist. The fact that the SRC and the SCLC still exis"; is a comment on our time. It is not that they should have been wiped out by W;ives of Southern bigotry, but that there is still a need for their continuation. The comment is this: 1) it has been 12 years since 1954 and the Brown decision; 2) it has been over 100 years since the end of the r evolt of the Southern states; 3) it has been almost 200 yea rs since these words were written"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal. . . ." The facts are these: in Atlanta, schools a r e still segregated in fact; Negroes must live in one particular section 'Of town; no major law firm has yet to hire a Negro lawyer; no major company has hired Neg ro executives, the jobs left open to Negroes a re menial a nd low paying for the most part; no social club will accept Negroes as members; Negro neighborhoods are on the bottom in city services and assista nce pr ovided by private companies; schools in these neig hborhoods are the oldest and most crowded ; in the slums landlords and loan sharks prey upon the ignora nce created by white big otry and d·o so unregulated by the law; for the most pa rt pure racism governs the sale of houses and the r ental of apartments in the better areas of Atlanta preventing a Negro's moving there even if he wanted to and on and on and on. P erhaps this situation makes the point mor e clearly : in the Commerce Building , home of the organization that develo,p ed and stands for " For ward Atlanta"--the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, is locat ed the Commerce Club to which no Negro is welcome as a guest or member, not even the Assistant Secretary of Commer ce. Atlanta has begun to take the faltering steps to t reat all its citizens as the minimum demanded by huma n decency-a s human beings. Yet before the smugness settles too deeply in t hese homes on t he northside where not much is seen beyond the c·ount ry club, t hese people, who. see the resolut ion of the problems of Detroit and Los Angeles and New York and At lanta as better police protection, should recognize what lip service to progress really means. It means nothing. And to·o much depends on immediate action to be satisfied with it. The change that will come will not come overnight, but as one Southerner, Judge Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, commented in the Jefferson County case: The clock has ticked the last t ick for tokenism and dela:>: in the na eed" � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document ena as eee as a STE an eee fot? Tue EMORY Vol. 48, No. 8 Emory Universit The Jaundiced Ei yes CHANIN Dykes High School is located in northwest Atlanta at the corner of Powers Ferry and Jett Roads across from Chastain Park. The fact of its location is insignificant as is the fact of its existence except that the institution serves to provide needed educational facilities to the im- mediate surrounding area. What is significant is the fact that few Ne- groes attend the school. Of course the reason for this is that very few Negroes live in the neigh- borhood serviced by Dykes. Thus the important point is that very few Negroes live on the north- side of Atlanta—in the social area known to readers of the hate sheet, the Northside News, as THE NORTHSIDE. Now it is not suggested that any person should particularly want to live in that area or to partake of its so-called benefits: debutantes, snobbery and other pleasantries. But it is a very beautiful neighborhood with rolling lawns, large estates, much green and, thanks to fine influence with the city, well-paved streets. In fact, the best possible in city services, in school, in all the things that go to make for gracious living are provided to the needy residents living there. Need a telephone installed, be right out, none of this crap about party-lines. Garbage collected regularly and streets, even the most out of the way ones, cleaned with little delay. Yes, on the northside lives the wealth of At- Janta. The decision makers are there—the pres- idents of the companies, the senior partners of the law firms, the doctors who claim that status brought by Piedmont Hospital. This is “Driving Club” land. And there are no Negroes. Read the social pages of the Atlanta newspapers: no Ne- groes ever have parties, get married, or give birth to children. In fact none of this goes on anywhere but the northside—if one trusts these newspapers. Meanwhile the Biltmore Hotel was the host last week to the annual meeting of the Southern Regional Council. At the banquet last Thursday the people mixed—colored and white, gentile and Jew. There were northsiders there. Several weeks earlier the Regency Hotel was the site of the annual meeting of the Southern Christian Lead- ership Conference. Sidney Poitier, Mrs. Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King lead the dignitaries. Mayor Allen was among them. And | there were many northsiders there. These annual meetings are important for two reasons. They indicate that there are those among the leadership of Atlanta who do not hold the normal views of the northside. These are: the people who have been instrumental in eit esd the policies and programs that have en Atlanta the progy essive image that it has “ 4 pas and who ses > elect id or seen to. to the elec- — Poitier, It. Z. King Attend SKC Meeting tion of the proper persons to carry out the policies and programs. The annual meetings also would indicate that the organizations sponsoring the meetings exist. The fact that the SRC and the SCLC still exis* is a comment on our time. It is not that they should have been wiped out by waves of South- ern bigotry, but that there is still a need for their continuation. The comment is this: 1) it has been 12 years since 1954 and the Brown decision; 2) it has been over 100 years since the end of the revolt of the Southern states; 3) it has been almost 200 years since these words were written— ‘We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal... .” The facts are these: in Atlanta, schools are still segregated in fact; Negroes must live in one particular section of town; no major law firm has yet to hire a Negro lawyer; no major company has hired Negro executives, the jobs left open to Negroes are menial and low paying for the most part; no social club will accept Negroes as members; Negro neighborhoods are on the bottom in city services and assistance provided by private companies; schools in these neighborhoods are the oldest and most crowded; in the slums landlords and loan sharks prey upon the ignorance created by white bigotry and do so unregulated by the law; for the most part pure racism governs the sale of houses and the rental of apartments in the better areas of Atlanta preventing a Negro’s moving there even if he wanted to and on and on and on. Perhaps this situation makes the point more clearly: in the Commerce Building, home of the organization that developed and stands for “For- ward Atlanta”—the Atlanta Chamber of Com- merce, is located the Commerce Club to which no Negro is welcome as a guest or member, not even the Assistant Secretary of Commerce. Atlanta has begun to take the faltering steps to treat all its citizens as the minimum demand- ed by human decency—as human beings. Yet be- fore the smugness settles too deeply in these homes on the northside where not much is seen beyond the country club, these people, who see the resolution of the problems of Detroit and Los Angeles and New York and Atlanta as better police protection, should recognize what lip ser- vice to progress really means. It means nothing. And too much depends on immediate action to be satisfied with it. The change that will come will not come over- night, but as one Southerner, Judge Wisdom of the Fifth Cireuit Court of Appeals, — in the Jefferson County case: The clock has ticked the last tick for and delay in the name of “deliberate sp sed”.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 78 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/1adc6769a857129fe0b934d3ef79745f.pdf 99b36b944cba18fa42f7b8f507e96d07 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. 220 Griffin St., N. W. Atl anta , Ga . 30314 , r, , :· · _. 1., j ••  .. l •. \I ,-~ , J . l • Ll M -1: ,. . . _ L Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. City of tlanta City Hall tlanta, Georgia l ·c· .. • 7] "::...- 1- - -, d 1 10 , E-l111an 5 •i..11--.;;:: 0 1n/iependern;.e !917-67 I �� Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 220 Griffin St., N. We te Atlanta, Ga. 30314 BOTAN a . SS <PM 3) = ISHUY y 4967 - tae Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. City of Atlanta City Hall Atlanta, Georgia -t [RS Ah ee Meret ge "ren,   Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 77 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/0fd8e217ea7fed4a7e8d379e396256b6.pdf 10d0c4b50b0847cba9982e21366675ce Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. do so, to beauti fy it, to build it' up. But if they wish to live in other sections of the city, better located, closer to places of work, or for other reasons, they will also be free to do so. In fact, t~e living in close contact and the mixing of peoples of all nations and of all races will be r.ncouragcd, for this will hasten the Jestruction of al I forms of scparati!'m passed J own as a heritage from capitalism, will tend to freely amalgamate all peop les. Thus, in a general way, we see the tremendous possibilities for_the Negro in a Soviet America. No privileges for the whites ~hich the Negroes do not at the same time have, full equal nghts-this is thr. minimum to be expected fro m a Soviet America. But today some eight million Negroes-two-thirds of the Negro people- li ve in and around the plantation area, in the lllost backward section of the country. The basic work will have lo he done here. Here the real economic basis for equality, the " 11 cial and political realization of equality, is to be g-uaranteerl. The Soviet Negro Republic We assume here that the new Negro Republic created as a result of the revolution for land and freedom is a Soviet Republic a_nd that this Republic has settled the question of self-determinahon in favor o( federation with the Soviet United States. Under such conditions, we will try to picture in its main features the transformation which can and will take place in this territory. The actual extPnt of this new Hepublic would in all probal,ility he approximately the pm-rnt arPa in which the Negroes co11stitute the ma jori ty of the population. In other worcls it would h~ approximatrly the pr~se11t planlation area. It would be certain to include such r:i tics as Jticlunond and Norfolk, Va., Columbia and Charleston, S. C., /\rl anta, Augusta, Savannah and Macon, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, New Orleans and Shreveport, La., Litt le Hock, Arkansas, ancl l\.'lemphis, Tennessee. In the actual determinati on of the boundaries of the 11ew Republic, other industrial cities may be included. The actual settlement of the qur.stion of boundaries wi ll depend largely on the steps taken 10 as!' ure well-rounded economic dP-vclopment lo the Negro Republic. This question we will discuss shortly. What will be the basis of political power? Who will hold the political power in this territory? At the present timt> political power is in tht' hands o( the 39 • �plantation masters and the capitalists. The democracy which permits the voters to elect this or that representative of the interests of the large landlords and the capitalists is limited only to a section of the white population. The Negroes are practically entirely excluded. There is less democracy here than in any other part of the country. As a result of the revolution the plantation masters and the capitalists will be overthrown. The formerly exploited classes of the population will come to power. These will be the workers, the former share-croppers, small tenants and small individual landowners. Because the Negroes are in a majority, especially of the exploited classes, the new governmental bodies will be predominantly composed of Negroes. The actual working out of real democracy in this territory-democracy for the majority of the people and not for the minority as under capitalismwill result in the Negroes playing the principal role in the new governmental authority. It would, however, be ¼Tong to say that the new government would be a dictatorship of the Negroes. Political power is based not upon racial characteristics but upon classes. The new political power would be-a dictatorship of the workers and the small farmers. Since most of the workers and the small farmers in this territory are Negroes, they would naturally compose the greater part of the personnel of the new town, township, county and regional government bodies. The Soviet has proven to be the international form of this kind of governmental power. The first Soviets were created by the Russian Revolution of 1905, and were established as the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat a,; a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Since then in revolutions which have taken place in Germany, Hungary, Austria, Spain, China, Cuba and other countries, Soviets have also appeared as the form of power of the workers and peasants. The Soviets which will arise in the old South will be somewhat as follows: They will arise locally, here and there, as the revolution starts, and spread as it develops further. Let us try to picture the composition of 'one of these Soviets, which will hold power in a certain locality. On this Soviet there will be representatives of the share-croppers, tenants and wage-workers of the plantations; then representatives, let us say, of the workers in a local 40 . . I t Lt n ain cutton,seed oil fac· sawmill or of a fertilizer p an , co O o ' d . I . ht be one or two poor an tory, or nearby textile mill; l iere mig j · t ests of the small landowners. T?is SoviPt will r_cpres~nt t ie,. m ;~; farmers. workers from the mills a[l(l plantat10ns and t;r... ~nd the poor It will embody the alliance lwtwcrn the work · ·· .· " ·t f these chsses, usm.,- I s . farmers. It will b1~ a dictator~I11P O ,d_ ·cl f . t . II at• • l ution '·m . :e ea .i ' Power to defend tlu~ l"lvains o• f Ih e rnvo . • • ~ , 111ta1)SIS at COUii· tempts of the form,~r pla11tat10n rna:-tcrs •1111 C,lrtcr-revolution. . d I , -e Soviet As the aains of the revolution arc consohJaNtc t H-r~ . 1i1·1c o ' S · . l <'"ro \t~pu · territories will unite to form the ,w~ ?lvlirb. ' ·o o ·ed uf the . b d £ h R bl ,c w1 e comp s , 1 he central Soviet o Y O t c P.(HI . . l found in the . . h · • . • -1 · which a1e to ie ll bl" " therefore, does reprcscntal1ves ol t r. -ame m_1cl l!S" local Soviets. The term "Soviet Negro epu ic ·lu,iwly uf not mean a llcpubl ic or a µ;ovcrnrrw11t conipo:r.. ctxc ·11 the new II N " .. will part1c11ia e I . . Negroes. Wh1Lc:s as we as corocs _ , , . whit•· sharc, i\1urro wori-1 rs, II k power-white wor Prs as "'·' ,ts ' -,-, I . • ·'Soviet ' h . Jt'I""' But L ie n,1n1c croµp1:rs us well as Negro s arc-crop1 ·: . lele oemocracy, Neµro Republic" does express the fact th.i_t cohmp_ lution itself. d b 1Ne"rOf'" in t c ,rvo and the important ro Ie PIaye Y " . · ·· t ·111 ·,cconlane1· ' h a,·... placed the Ne~nws .111 th e b o< 1·1cs ol ..-,,·o,·1•r11nw11 · with their real majority. h ·ent rulin" class 1 It must also be borne in mi nd t mt. l e ~;~: -revolutiin will of the South is composed entirely of wlutes. l ·t·11g and ruling · t th present exp 0 1 1 disfranchise and expropna e h b · of class dis· ·n b e edone on t e as1s N h l class. This, of course, WI 1·t will result in evert f' ess, . · t·10n. tiuction and not race d 1stmc . ... , . h ·" J white c1llzt 11 "· cuttino- down the number of en f ranc J. et . . h' l ry 0 • ·1 ituution in our 0 " 11 18 0 · We have somewhat of a simi ar s . hi rulPd the In the years 1867-187'7 a revolutionary dictators pent the fur. d" t h"p was to prev South. The purpose of t h 18 icta ors I Th' was a dictator18 • to power. rner slaveowners £rom returmng h 'ddle class sup· · 1·· t d Sout ern mi ' ship of the Northern capita 18 s an many of whom I ported principally hf the forme~ ~:g~~u~ha:~·in locally organ· were in the army which patrolle ~ h" was also supported, ized rifle clubs and militias. The dictato~s ipf The county th or white armers. especially at the start, b Y e po mposed almost en. th l t tion areas were co . h governments m e P an a th Negroes were m t e tirely of Negroes. In a number of stathesld e y of the important · l atures, an d they e man rnajority in the l eg1s d 41 �state offices. A number of Negnies were elected to the Senate and House of Representatives in Washington. If at that time full democracy had been in force the Negroes would have had even larger representation in the state and national governments. A fter the defeat of these revolutionary governments, the Negroes were completely disfranchised. Under the revolutionary government of the Soviets, however, full democracy fur the majority will be assured by creating the economic basis for this democracy. The Economic Foundation of Equality THE LAND Among the first actions of a Soviet government would be a decree recognizing the confiscation of the large landownings where this has taken place or authorizing such confiscation if it has not yet taken place, converting all privately-owned land into the property of the whole people without compensation, and the confiscation of all livestock and implements of the large landowners for the use of the people. Thus would the destruction of the plantation system in the South be authorized according to revolutionary law. The land would now be the property of the people as a whole. Local Soviets or land committees, compc,sed of the poor farmers and the farm workers, could now determine the allotment of land to the former tenants and share-cropeprs. While the hmd would remain the property of the Republic, it would be divided up among the poor farmers whose right to till their farms would be recognized. Those who already have a small holding of land would be permitted to continue working it and they might even be given more land after the needs of the landless are satisfied. All previous debts and obligations would be cancelled. Financing, the banks and credit would now be in the hands of the Soviet state. With the removal of all restricting forces, such as the old credit institution and the plantation system, a complete transformation of agriculture in the South would now be possible. The most hackl\'ard area under capitalism could now be turned into a source of well-being for its population. Cotton, the most important commercial crop, which under capitalism is ~he scourge of millions of toilers, can now be turned into the instrument for rapid economic and social development. From the huge plantations as they exist today two kinds of 42 . . d 1 in the first stages of agricultural enterprises are likely to eve op . . the South . b 40 000 plantations 1D • Soviet Power. There are a out • ' . b t 72 5 acres, but only The size of the average plantation 18 a. ou k d b tenants and yh'mself with slightly more than half of this acreage 1s wodr e . k d b the lan owner 1 share-croppers. The rest 1s wor e Y • f the plan. th tenant section o wage-workers. Cotton 1s grown 'ln e f land and for . · · used as athreserveh 0 d the present 18 talion, and the other secuon an 'reserve land . f eed crops. .On e. one f the t h e purpose of growing tenant holdings together with a certaint:i:hbon t~e former tenants. could be turned into small farms wor e Y1 b section of the On the other hand, a good part of the watger:i.i:: or collectives. plantation could be turned into mo~el _sta immediate examples These could serve from the very begmnmg 1 t form collectives. for the surrounding small holders of land ~ so t~e socialist form, For the advantage of this form of farmmg, Would immediately become apparenL 1 There . tremendous sea e. Some of these plantations a~e on a which have an average e today worked are over 400 plantations, for inatance, . h 1 700 acres ar acreage of about 3,500 , of wh lC ' k The largest ers. by the landowners themse1ves Wl"th wage wor M" and is owned plantation in the world is situated at Scott, 1:*'·•th AAA This · I now 1D e · by Oscar Johnson, one of the h 1. gh Officla s . f this kind the • covers 37,OOO acres. On plantations P1antahon d toscientific meth0 ~e shared by the use of modern machinery and the lat~~ ~n ods of agriculture, the benefits of w lC Wld encouragement ·11 as tremen ous f the small holdings. producers themselves, Wl serve for the creation of similar giant farms out O for the • 11 The technical transformation of agricuSltureh Wl T:doty untold "bl · the old out · h" h . used by the backfirst time become poss1 e m . . 1 . ·1 ion w 1c 1s ca Wealth 1s bemg ost m 801 eros d" d plantation system. shed away. With Ward methods established by the ere_ lt The good soil is being. e":11austed 0 .r si: p thew;oviet Government, the aid of trained spec1ahsts supphe? ~ ed In.stead of a one· . Iture Wl·n be mstitut · new methods of agncu d -t d by the bankers . . 1 h. h is eman.,.e sided one-crop agn cu ture, w ic ded and planned ' . wi' ll b e possi"ble to have roun and creditors, 1t . hd awn and replanted Wl'th agriculture. Inferior land may be wit rcli land and the soil lwnber, food crops may be raised on olt' ert1'on of forage, etc. . of crops and theb cu d'1vag d restored by rotation 1e- ree m ' 88 the tractor an . d' ·11 lace mu L1ve-stock bree mg Wl rep S .fi t 43 �other agricultural machinery replace the mule. The huge collec· tive farms can be tremendous cotton-growing factories. The land, no longer divided up into small tenant lots, can now be plowed by a tractor, planted by a seeding machine, chopped by modern agricultural equipment. The mechanical cotton picker, whose development has been retarded by the present system of growing cotton, could now be employed profitably. There would be a tremendous saving in human labor. Hunclrccl:,; of thousands of farm families would now have the possibilities of leisure and peace, plenty and abundance, education and culture. Social planning will make this possible. The nearest capitalism has come to "planning" is to plan the destruction of millions of acres o~ cotton under the A.A.A. and the Bankhead Bill. The new planning will plan, not destruction, but pro1lul'lion and distribution. Where will the n~sources and capital Le obtained for this transformation of Southern agriculture? At the present time the hankers, other creditors, large commission and merchanting houses and the large landowners obtain great profits from the cotton country. Much of the surplus now produced in the collon eountry is accumulated by the financiers in the form of exorbitant interest, in some cases reachinp; as hip;h a:,; 700 per r.ent per annum. This parasitism will no lunp;er exist. All cotton will be sold directly lo gcm~rnment agencies eith,•r from the collective or state farms or by the cooperatives of the individual owners. Government credit will be made available, on easy terms, to the poorest section of the fanning population ancl to the collectives. Thus the capital produced by cotton cultivation will not Aow into the coffers of Wall Street but will be utilized for improving Southern agriculture and the conditions of its workers. But this will not be the only source of capital. The government of the :\egru Republic could allocate to agriculture additional funds from the revenues of the State, largely obtained from State-owned industry. Thirdly, there would be even greater aid from the Central Soviet Government of the United States. The principal policy of the Central Soviet Government with regard to the Negro Republic would be to establish the basis of full equality by rapidly raising the economic level of this region. Funds would immediately be allocated for agricultural and industrial development in 44 . h . . ns and experts would f 11 d by the the South· the necessary skilled tee nicia . ' . . 1 the pohcy o owe he supplied. This was precise Y . h backward areas · U · · relat10n to t e government of the S ov1et mon 1~ lived If the Soviet Union where the formerly oppressed natw~s. d · ces the Central .h . 1 . l hm1te resour ' could do this, wit _its r~ at1ve y will be able to do it on a Soviet Government m this country d 'th that of the . · · connecte w1 much greater scale. Th 1s quest10n is building of industry in the South. INDUSTRY f h untry there is a very uncomparison to the rest o t e _co h tation area of the developed and unbalanced industry m t e p a_nll towns there are · f cotton m1 • . h South today. With t e e~ceptIO~ 0 . 0 the Black Belt. The only no important large-scale mdu st ries. 1 h' h is 1·ust off the . . B' mmaham w ic h eavy industrial center is 0 m ir 1 The textile industry, by northern tip of the Alabama Black B~ t. d · the North and . h 5 th 1s centere m . rar the largest .m d ustry m t e ou • l t part of Georgia. · the Nort 1eas em h . p·ie d mont an d m South Carolina . l moved from t e ,, b . d t " are a so re the rayon and to acco m us ne~. . h' th plantation area plantation area. The only indust_n es w1tdm 'th\griculture, such itself are those which are closely conne~~e I w1 ber turpentine. as fntilizer. cotton gi n;;, cotton-sePd o1, um t '1·n this respect · . f h 5 · t governmen The basic pohcy o t e ov1e h . dustries as already Would be to industrialize this area. SSuc . m t te Even before f the ov1et s a . . . h h d ex.1st would pass mto t e an s O l'k ly to be: to open ·1 h fi t steps are 1 e new industries are b UI t t e rs · rporate such an rkers to mco R the textile industry to N egro wo ' 't y of the Negro e. B' . h m in the tern or . important area as irmmg a ._f h machine-building m. . d t a basis or t e . • pu bl ic m or er to crea e h f t'l' er cotton-gmnmg . d . ve t e er 1 iz . d dustry· to modermze an impro h f scientific metho s ·J Pl an ts·teuseo and other similar m ustna ' o d s W h'lCh under the com• th in the exploitation of e pme wob . ' uickly exhausted; to Petitive capitalist system, are ~ow emt~ q with lumbering. . · d t in connec 10n l d evelop the furniture m us ry Id rtainly be the supJ' Y One of the principal problems woul ce t of such a large· . The deve opmen Id of agricultural ma.c h mery · B' · gham area wou 'th the irmm d . scale industry in connect10n w1 B. . ham h as n ot been developeth be on the order of the day. irmmg etition of the nor . to its full potentialities because of _the_ co;;i:n is conceded by all ern steel-producing centers. :et rumt;; c:nter of a huge metal specialists in the field to be idea as l In ' ·a 45 �·n f or the first time meet a stronger . .11 t the same time the southern masses today, wi foe. This foe will be victorious because it wh1 ad" s Pro· h . use of t ese isease . do away with poverty, t_ e pru~e ~a . will for the first time f essional care and public hospitahzationnd poor th Negro masses a he available on a large seal e to e . Ge · and the , t estate m orgia whites. President Rooseve lt s presen b d 1·nto sanitoria, · other resorts of t h e m1·11·ionaires, can e turneh h of tired h become t e aven B I hospitals, clubs, etc. Pam eac ca~ ds also be Q5eci Workers and toiling farmers. The pme woo c;iresorts of the as health-giving resorts. All the beS t spots£ anth masses . l b est homes or e · present rulmg c ass can ecome r . h . list education of Much will also have to be .done ~n t e. st:ve removed the the white population. Th~ ~evolution_ wil . 11 remove even the basis of prejudice, hut socialist education w1 industry. There are close at hand the necessary coal, ore and dolomite. This could become the great manufacturing center of tractors and other agricultural machinery which will be a great force in bringing about socialism on the former slave land. This area is also rich in water power. Capitalism has only just begun the development of electric power in the South and this growth has been retarded because there is not sufficient industry to make use of this power. Under the planned economy of a Soviet state, old industry would be reconstructed, new industries would arise. We have only indicated some of the possibilities. Still greater ones would unfold in a Soviet America. This much is important and certain: with the overthrow of the landlord-capitalist power and the establishment of the Soviet Negro Republic, the most backward section of the United States would develop into an advanced, wealthy area. The rich resources of the territory, until now wasted and plundered by the capitalists, would be turned to their own account by the workers and farmers, with the aid of the working class of the North and northern resources. Then would the basis of Negro equality be established. And the socalled poor whites would also he liberated from poverty, extreme exploitation and backwardness. remnants of prejudice. . . . h ossibility created for Only on the basis of socrnhsm is t e p l Unde~ !be the full and equal development ~£ ~e N~fe: ~~:P ~~gro i,c:ople slave power and under the cap1tahst pd U der the power of have been retarded, oppressed, perse~ute · lossom forth and the workers and the poor farmers t ey can f II-fledged people . potentla · 1·ities. · . Only .then as d a du e ual status herealize all then will they be able to take their und1spute an q side3 all the peoples of the world. . f a glorious future . This is only a mere peep into the vista o h1"eve They come ot easy to ac · . for the masses. Such th mgs are n h t turn those energies as the result of hard struggle. But ~ no lasses are using for and powers of ours, which the exp o1tmg c their benefit, to our benefit? . . by preparing our . b · by orgamzmg, We must begm now- egm di"tions by learn· . l t 'mprove our con , b "ld and support the forces in our daily strugg es O 1 . " Ab all we must u1 . ing "to take over. ove k' lass the Communist only revolutionary party of th (; wor mhg cvohi~ionists and mili. P arty, composed of d'staunch reworkina class an d the p arty. This tant workers, is training and lea mg t be. t"ve 0 d their areat o Jee i . oppressed masses tow?r s o l create the powerful, greal Join the Comm1mist Party, hep d Socialism. . . l ad . th masses towar s vanguard which is e mg e . The Reali:r.ation of Social Equality When the slaves were liberated in the South as a result of the Civil War the slave blocks and auction houses were burned to the ground by the former chattels. One can well imagine with what elation the liberated people of the South will now burn the jim-crow signs, symbols of the capitalist slavery of white and Negro alike. The bonfire of jim-crow signs will light the way to real freedom. The power of the workers and poor farmers will create for the first time a culture for the masses of the South. New, modern school buildings will arise by the thousands. Illiteracy, the shame of the South, will be wiped out. Technical schools and universities will also become a southern product. We think it entirely safe to predict that the public school system in all its branches will develop at a rate in the South exceeding any previous records in the history of American capitalism. Much will have to be done in the field of health protecton. The diseases of poverty-pellagra, hookworm, etc.- which plague 46 r. . L PUBLISHERS Published by WoRKE;f 1~ YCity. June, 1935 P. O. Box 148, Sta. D, - ew �What's Back of Anti-Discrimination Bills? The past year or two a wave of propaganda has demanded the enactment by Congress and the several States of so-called "Anti· Discrimination Laws." The assumption of many persons is that these measures are a generous and timely effort that will bring contentment to all the people. But there is impressive evidence that they are, instead, merely one more attempt of the Communists to stir up trouble. There und_oubtedly is so_me discrimination against many Negroes, and to a certam extent agamst many Jews. But it is in large part merely_ the e_xpression by the 117 million non-Negroes and non-Jews of their ch01ce of employees or fellow-employees, or of companions or associates. Such choice is, in the very nature of things, a part of liberty itself. Negroes and Jews in the United States have had greater opportu~itie~ than in ~ny other country on earth. On the day the New York legislative commlltees held a hearing on an Anti-Discrimination Bill, the New York_papers carried long articles telling of the election of a Negro as President of the Bar Association of Dutchess County, New York, and mentioning incidentally that his daughter is a Justice of the Domestic Relations Court in New York City. . ~ncreasing numbers of ~egroes are constantly attaining distinc· uon ID many fields. There 1s less reason now for anti-discrimination l~ws t!tan there might h:ive_ been t~n, ~wenty or thirty years ago. The ~1tuauon has been steadily 1mprov1Dg ID that slow but sure way whid1 1s the sou_ndest way_ of all, but which apparently annoys the zealots and fa~aucs who wish to see any situation they think wrong righted over mght. And many good citizens, who have lacked opportunity really_ to study the matter, are today being misled by iliese very !anaucs, and by an alien-minded element with aims and purposes of its own. M~st Ame_ricans regret the existence of any cliso·imination. True edu~:tllon, pat!ence and ~eate_r emphasis on the_ Christian quality of chan_ty (that 1s, good will) will accelerate the unprovement in race rel~uo~s t~at has long been noted. But to resort to compulsion by leg1slauon 1s not the remedy. That will set the clock back--and will probably do worse. The Eighteenth Amendment proved that. • • • • We submit herewi_th an offse~ copy of a pamphlet published in 1935 by the Workers Library Publishers (the Communist Party of the U:S.A.). A perusal of this suggests the likelihood ~t ~e anti-discnmi~ation campaign for which many ~ pe<_>P.le, mduding church organizations, have fallen, is of wholly ahen ongin. . "The Negroes in a Soviet America," as the reader will ~ee, is a dir~ct incitement by the Communist;5 to bloody revolt aga~nst the whue people of the United States, urgmg them_ to set up a Soviet form of government and affiliate with Soviet Russia. The Foreword on page 2 urges social equality as "'a minimum desire" of th_e N~gr~. ~n page 35 is the statement, "'The Negro people can find msp1rauon 10 tne revolutionary attempts of Gabriel, Denmark Vesey, Nat Tum': ·." etc.; and upon consulting Volume XIV of Albert Bushnell Hart_s History of the American Nation," it will be foun'! that _two at leas~ of these Negroes were the leaders in Negro revolts m which scores 0 White men, women and children were mercilessly slaughtered . . On page 38 is the statement that, "Any act of discriminatio~ or of prejudice agamst a Negro will become a cnme under the revoluuonary law." The anti-discrimination bills carry out this idea precisely! At the present moment, of course, the C~mmunist technique has changed-it would not aid in securing a conunuance of lend-lease or the expected help in Russian reconstruction if so cr_ude :I; pamphl~t Were circulated now. Nevertheless, as David Dalhn f>OlDtS .out .m his .book, "The Real Soviet Russia" (publishe bf th~ Yale Umversity Press, 1945), this current attitude of tlie Commll:msts 1s merely a Prul;5C from which t11e Communists will return to their ruthless Commum5t program when the current need has passed. James W. Ford, one of the authors ?f the pamph~et, h_as. been several times the candidate of the Communist Party for Vice-Piesidcnt. "James S. Allen " the other author, is the alias for Sol Au~rbach whose activities were ~ matter of record before the Dies Committee. J· This special offset edition of "The Negroes in a Soviet America .. has been brought out in order that the people may form a true ';';°der5tanding of what is back of the present hullabaloo about ¾uality." Race NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL, INC., April 1915 550 fifth Ave., New York I, N. 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Youngstown: 310 W. Federal St., 3rd ft. Write for a complete catalog to anJ' of the above addresses or to WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS P . 0. Box 148, Sta. D New York City � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document do so, to beautify it, to build it up. But if they wish to live in other sections of the city, better located, closer to places of work, or for other reasons, they will also be free to do so. In fact, the living in close contact and the mixing of peoples of all na- tons and of all races will be encouraged, for this will hasten the destruction of all forms of separatism passed down as a heri- tage from capitalism, will tend to freely amalgamate all peoples. Thus, in a general way, we see the tremendous possibilities for the Negro in a Soviet America. No privileges for the whites which the Negroes do not at the same time have, full equal tights—this is the minimum to be expected from a Soviet America. But today some eight million Negroes—two-thirds of the “gro people—live in and around the plantation area, in the most backward section of the country. The basic work will have bo be done here. Here the real economic basis for equality, the “cial and political realization of equality, is to be guaranteed. The Soviet Negro Republic We assume here that the new Negro Republic created as a Fesult of the revolution for land and freedom is a Soviet Republic and that this Republic has settled the question of self-determina- tion in favor of federation with the Soviet United States. Under Such conditions, we will try to picture in its main features the transformation which can and will take place in this territory. The actual extent of this new Republic would in all prob- ability be approximately the present area in which the Negroes Constitute the majority of the population. In other words it would be approximately the present plantation area. It would be cer- tain to include such cities as Richmond and Norfolk, Va., Coluim- bia and Charleston, S. C., Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah and Macon, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, New Orleans and Shreveport, La., Little Rock, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee. In the actual determination of the boundaries of the new Republic, other industrial cities may be included. The actual settlement of the question of boundaries will depend largely on the steps taken to assure well-rounded economic development to the Negro Republic. This question we will discuss shortly. What will be the basis of political power? Who will hold the political power in this territory? At the present time political power is in the hands of the  plantation masters and the capitalists. The democracy which permits the voters to elect this or that representative of the in- terests of the large landlords and the capitalists is limited only to a section of the white population. The Negroes are practically entirely excluded. There is less democracy here than in any other part of the country. As a result of the revolution the plantation masters and the capitalists will be overthrown. The formerly exploited classes of the population will come to power. These will be the workers, the former share-croppers, small tenants and small individual landowners. Because the Negroes are in a majority, especially of the exploited classes, the new governmental bodies will be pre- dominantly composed of Negroes. The actual working out of real democracy in this territory—democracy for the majority of the people and not for the minority as under capitalism— will result in the Negroes playing the principal role in the new governmental authority. It would, however, be wrong to say that the new government would be a dictatorship of the Negroes. Political power is based not upon racial characteristics but upon classes. The new pol- itical power would bea dictatorship of the workers and the small farmers. Since most of the workers and the small farmers in this territory are Negroes, they would naturally compose the greater part of the personnel of the new town, township, county and re- gional government bodies. The Soviet has proven to be the international form of this kind of governmental power. The first Soviets were created by the Russian Revolution of 1905, and were established as the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Since then in revolutions which have taken place in Germany, Hungary, Austria, Spain, China, Cuba and other countries, Soviets have also appeared as the form of power of the workers and peasants. The Soviets which will arise in the old South will be somewhat as follows: They will arise locally, here and there, as the revolution starts, and spread as it develops further. Let us try to picture the composition of ‘one of these Soviets, which will hold power in a certain locality. On this Soviet there will be representatives of the share-croppers, tenants and wage-workers of the planta- tions; then representatives, let us say, of the workers in a local 40 sawmill or of a fertilizer plant, colton gin, cotton-seed < ae tory, or nearby textile mill; there might be one or two po pas small landowners. This Soviet will represent the intere farmers. workers from the mills and plantations and we eal shi oer It will embody the alliance between the workers an ate farmers, It will be a dictatorship of these eee lp ats power to defend the gains of the revolution ané frais 5 Aesth tempts of the former plantation masters and capitalists ¢ ter-revolution. Idat sains of the revolution are conse d ; a re ill unite to form the new Soviet Negro Te The central Soviet body of the Republic will be On a ae representatives of the ame interests which are 1: rf ane does local Soviets. The term “Soviet Negro Republic”, t eaiaely of not mean a Republic or a government composed Ba eee Negroes. Whites as well as Negroes will participate hie shure- power—white workers as well as Negro qe ae seesftek croppers as well as Negro share-croppers. put ae = democracy, Nexro Republic” does express the fact that CE Serantnien ‘sell, and the important role played by earess ae 2 saat in accordance hive placed the Negroes in the bodies of governme with their real majority. ing class It must also be borne in mind that the prea oral of the South is composed entirely of whites. r e re altrhne disfranchise and expropriate the ee eal class dis- class. This, of course, will be done on the ae will result in tinction and not race distinction. Nevertheless, soe cutting down the number of enfranchised white citizens. have somewhat of a similar si D the In ie years 1867-1877 a revolutionary dictatorship rare for- South, The purpose of this agitate vehi a a dictator- mer slaveowners from returning to power. middle class, sup- ship of the Northern capitalists and ee a Titiaay of whom ported principally by the former Negro © Sv cally organ: were in the army which patrolled the Sou h or ales supported. ized rifle clubs and militias. The dictatorship ae The county especially at the start, by the poor while 28 osed almost en- governments in the plantation areas were oN caree were in the tirely of Negroes. In a number of states ve ae the important majority in the legislatures, aed Bey held many d these Soviet tuation in our own history.  | state offices. A number of Negroes were elected to the Senate and House of Representatives in Washington. If at that time full democracy had been in force the Negroes would have had even larger representation in the state and national governments. After the defeat of these revolutionary governments, the Negroes were completely disfranchised. Under the revolutionary government of the Soviets, however, full democracy for the majority will be assured by creating the economic basis for this democracy. The Economic Foundation of Equality THE LAND Among the first actions of a Soviet government would be a decree recognizing the confiscation of the large landownings where this has taken place or authorizing such confiscation if it has not yet taken place, converting all privately-owned land into the property of the whole people without compensation, and the confiscation of all livestock and implements of the large land- owners for the use of the people. Thus would the destruction of the plantation system in the South be authorized according to revolutionary law. The land would now be the property of the people as a whole. Local Soviets or land committees, composed of the poor farmers and the farm workers, could now determine the allotment of land to the former tenants and share-cropeprs. While the land would remain the property of the Republic, it would be divided up among the poor farmers whose right to till their farms would be recognized. Those who already have a small holding of land would be permitted to continue working it and they might even be given more land after the needs of the landless are satisfied. All previous debts and obligations would be cancelled. Finan- cing, the banks and credit would now be in the hands of the Soviet state. With the removal of all restricting forces, such as the old credit institution and the plantation system, a complete trans- formation of agriculture in the South would now be possible. The most backward area under capitalism could now be turned into a source of well-being for its population. Cotton, the most im- portant commercial crop, which under capitalism is the scourge of millions of toilers, can now be turned into the instrument for rapid economic and social development. From the huge plantations as they exist today two kinds of 42 : of agricultural enterprises are likely to develop in the ek Soviet Power. There are about 40,000 plantations ms Seats The size of the average plantation is about Tae nee os slightly more than half of this acreage 18 worke Seca ¢ with share-croppers. The rest is worked by the landowner ae Wage-workers, Cotton is grown 71 the tenant eae vacate tation, and the other section is used as a reece He reise the purpose of growing feed crops. On the hs e teas tenant holdings together with a certain section © ea decennial could be turned into small farms worked by the fo Se On the other hand, a good part of the wage-labor Se Lee plantation could be turned into model state farms ae Peas These could serve from the very beginning a5 oe 18 meaner for the surrounding small holders of land also to ome ae For the advantage of this form of farming, the soc Would immediately become apparent. Some of these plantations are on 4 ¢ aueane are over 400 slamnanion for instance, which eis ny a os acreage of about 3,500, of which 1,700 acres are Tease by the landowners themselves with wage workers. ae ee plantation in the world is situated at Scott, Mer Ai - This by Oscar Johnson, one of the high officials now in Pe adie plantation covers 37,000 acres. On plantations © aa heaee use of modern machinery and the latest and a Sal by the ods of agriculture, the benefits of which will be a producers themselves, will serve 48 tremendous e SuilaihEs for the creation of similar giant farms out of the sm , : r the The technical transformation of agriculture oe igi first time become possible in the old South: d by the back- wealth is being lost in soil erosion which is oii sao system. ward methods established by the credit and hed away. With The good soil is being exhausted or mney "63 ‘et Government, the aid of trained specialists supplied by seo Tnatead of a one- new methods of agriculture will be institut ie sided, one-crop agriculture, which is demabf™™ 4 plan and creditors, it will be possible to have a ro i agriculture. Inferior land may be withdrawn ‘ ther lumber, food crops may be raised on other , etc. reiiran oe ae of veoh and the cultivation of tone’ ot Abi: le-breeding, as the trac tremendous scale. There Live-stock breeding will replace ie  other agricultural machinery replace the mule. The huge collec- tive farms can be tremendous cotton-growing factories. The land, no longer divided up into small tenant lots, can now be plowed by a tractor, planted by a seeding machine, chopped by modern agricultural equipment. The mechanical cotton picker, whose development has been retarded by the present system of growing cotton, could now be employed profitably. There would be a tremendous saving in human labor. Hundreds of thousands of farm families would now have the possibilities of leisure and peace, plenty and abundance, education and culture. Social planning will make this possible. The nearest capital- ism has come to “planning” is to plan the destruction of millions of acres of cotton under the A.A.A. and the Bankhead Bill. The new planning will plan, not destruction, but production and dis- tribution. Where will the resources and capital be obtained for this transformation of Southern agriculture? At the present time the bankers, other creditors, large commission and merchanting houses and the large landowners obtain great profits from the cotton country. Much of the surplus now produced in the cotton country is accumulated by the financiers in the form of exorbi- tant interest, in some cases reaching as high as 700 per cent per annum. This parasitism will no longer exist. All cotton will be sold directly to government agencies either from the collective or state farms or by the cooperatives of the individual owners. Government credit will be made available, on easy terms, to the poorest section of the farming population and to the collectives. Thus the capital produced by cotton cultivation will not flow into the coffers of Wall Street but will be utilized for improving Southern agriculture and the conditions of its workers. But this will not be the only source of capital. The govern- ment of the Negro Republic could allocate to agriculture addi- tional funds from the revenues of the State, largely obtained from State-owned industry. Thirdly, theve would be even greater aid from the Central Soviet Government of the United States. The principal policy of the Central Soviet Government with regard to the Negro Re- public would be to establish the basis of full equality by rapidly raising the economic level of this region. Funds would immedi- ately be allocated for agricultural and industrial development in 4 hi ss Id the South: the necessary skilled technicians and experts wou i by the be supplied. This was precisely the: poliey flO ae government of the Soviet Union in relation to e on SY anion where the formerly oppressed nations lived. one Al could do this, with its relatively limited rue pect” Soviet Government in this country will be me ms ees much greater scale. This question is connected wi building of industry in the South. INDUSTRY i very un- In comparison to the rest of De Sy ts, ae of the developed and unbalanced industry 1m the p “tl towns, there are South today. With the exception of Ba k Belt. The only No important large-scale industries 1n the ich js just off the heavy industrial center is in Birmingnst xtile industry, by northern tip of the Alabama Black Belt: ue din the North and far the largest industry in the South, is centere i (ilGencnia South Carolina Piedmont and in the North ee saved from the The rayon and tobacco industries are ae ‘e lantation area plantation area. The only industries ae th agriculture, such itself are those which are closely connected viper, turpentine. as fertilizer, cotton gins, cotton-seed oil, lum ve ante oeot The basic policy of the Soviet Sbekniee see as already would be to industrialize this area. Such in s ‘j Even before exist would pass into the hands of the Soren be: to open new industries are built the first steps are ey * uc an : s, to incorporate § the textile industry to Negro workers, of the Negro Re- important area as Birmingham in the territory oi ge building in- public in order to create a basis for the me Se engaeane dustry; to modernize and improve the ferti ee ae at hae and other similar industrial plants; the eoaee vader the com- in the exploitation of the pine woods, w ri pean ie Petitive capitalist system, are NOW being eh abating: develop the furniture industry in TPE +s. the ean One of the principal problems online t of such a large- of agricultural machinery. The developer ham area would Seale industry in connection with the ee at been developed be on the order of the day. Birmingham = petition of the north- to its full potentialities because of the eee itor aveded by all cn al produring center. Yet moter of hg Specialists in the field to be ae as ————i‘< eC industry. There are close at hand the necessary coal, ore and dolomite. This could become the great manufacturing center of tractors and other agricultural machinery which will be a great force in bringing about socialism on the former slave land. This area is also rich in water power. Capitalism has only just begun the development of electric power in the South and this growth has been retarded because there is not sufficient industry to make use of this power. Under the planned economy of a Soviet state, old industry would be reconstructed, new in- dustries would arise. We have only indicated some of the possibilities. Still greater ones would unfold in a Soviet America. This much is important and certain: with the overthrow of the landlord-capitalist power and the establishment of the Soviet Negro Republic, the most backward section of the United States would develop into an advanced, wealthy area. The rich resources of the territory, until now wasted and plundered by the capitalists, would be turned to their own account by the workers and farmers, with the aid of the working class of the North and northern resources. Then would the basis of Negro equality be established. And the so- called poor whites would also be liberated from poverty, extreme exploitation and backwardness. The Realization of Social Equality When the slaves were liberated in the South as a result of the Civil War the slave blocks and auction houses were burned to the ground by the former chattels. One can well imagine with what elation the liberated people of the South will now burn the jim-crow signs, symbols of the capitalist slavery of white and Negro alike. The bonfire of jim-crow signs will light the way to real freedom. The power of the workers and poor farmers will create for the first time a culture for the masses of the South. New, mod- ern school buildings will arise by the thousands. Illiteracy, the shame of the South, will be wiped out. Technical schools and universities will also become a southern product. We think it entirely safe to predict that the public school system in all its branches will develop at a rate in the South exceeding any pre- vious records in the history of American capitalism. Much will have to be done in the field of health protecton. The diseases of poverty—pellagra, hookworm, etc.—which plague 46 er the southern masses today, will for the first time na pre : foe. This foe will be victorious because it will a a a do away with poverty, the prime cause of ae ere fessional care and public hospitalization will for ahr be available on a large scale to the Negro Seas Ste whites, President Roosevelt’s present estate 1n cre eae other resorts of the millionaires, can be turned mee eee hospitals, clubs, etc. Palm Beach car become the ane workers and toiling farmers. The pine woods ee ceithe as health-giving resorts. All the best ne ane ee present ruling class can become rest homes or De enone Much will also have to be done in oe = ata the white population. The revolution wil ee Die basis of prejudice, but socialist education W1 t f prejudice. we. H S Galy oe ie Thesis of socialism is the pony ene 2 the full and equal development of the Negro Pe NED = aale slave power and under the capitalist pone paar sie have been retarded, oppressed, persecuted. e e at gaa a the workers and the poor farmers they can ecactcel sane realize all their potentialities. Only then as a He eluate will they be able to ee eae and eq 81 the peoples of the world. eee ae This is sity ‘ mere peep into the vista ae Oe othey ae for the masses. Such things are not easy to achie ee on as the result of hard struggle. But why ade De and powers of ours, which the exploiting classes their benefit, to our benefit? We must begin ioe by ores f i aily struggles to 1mp ; the tha ea aake ore hove all we must hale ant TS aig only revolutionary party of the working ¢ oe sea anil Party. This Party, composed of staunch a ae te aa abe tant workers, is training and leading ve wore g Oppressed masses towards their great objectiv®- erful, great Join the Communist Party, help create the powerful, & ich i i towards Socialism. vanguard which is leading the masses —_- i ing our nizing, by prepatins our conditions, by learn- PUBLISHERS i by Workers LIBRARY © P og eS Sta. D, New York City. June, ——————i‘( eC What’s Back of Anti-Discrimination Bills? The past year or two a wave of propaganda has demanded the enactment by Congress and the several States of so-called “‘Anti- Discrimination Laws.” The assumption of many persons is that these measures are a generous and timely effort that will bring contentment to all the people. But there is impressive evidence that they are, instead, merely one more attempt of the Communists to stir up trouble. There undoubtedly is some discrimination against many Negroes, and to a certain extent against many Jews. But it is in large part merely the expression by the 117 million non-Negroes and non-Jews of their choice of employees or fellow-employees, or of companions or associates. Such choice is, in the very nature of things, a part of liberty itself. Negroes and Jews in the United States have had greater oppor- tunities than in any other country on earth. On the day the New York legislative committees held a hearing on an Anti-Discrimination Bill, the New York papers carried long articles telling of the election of a Negro as President of the Bar Association of Dutchess County, New York, and mentioning incidentally that his daughter is a Justice of the Domestic Relations Court in New York City. Increasing numbers of Negroes are constantly attaining distinc- tion in many fields. There is less reason now for anti-discrimination laws than there might have been ten, twenty or thirty years ago. The situation has been steantly improving in that slow but sure way which is the soundest way of all, but which apparently annoys the zealots and fanatics who wish to see any situation they think wrong righted over night. And many good citizens, who have lacked opportunity really to study the matter, are today being misled by these very fanatics, and by an alien-minded element with aims and purposes of its own. Most Americans regret the cxistence of any discrimination. ‘True education, patience and greater emphasis on the Christian quality of charity (that is, good will) will accelerate the improvement in race relations that has long been noted. But to resort to compulsion by legislation is not the remedy. That will set the clock back—and will probably do worse. The Eighteenth Amendment proved that. We submit herewith an offset copy of 2 papal: published in 1935 by the Workers Library Publishers (the Communist Party of the é “Loli i-dis- U.S.A.). A perusal of this su ts the likelihood that the ah eanineton prandion for which many good people, including oe organizations, have fallen, is of wholly alien origin. “The Negroes in a Soviet America,” as the reader will see, 35 2 direct sacitennent by the Communists to bloody revolt pee white people of the United States, urging them to set up 4 ov: male of government and affiliate with Soviet Russia. (clike Fores ce Page 2 urges social equality as “a minimum desire” of thi er n Page $5 is the statement, “The Negro people can find ins anon > ea a eoeed e Coane bec Bushnell Hart's :--" etc.; and upon consulting Volume “History of the ieiterteanl Nation,” it will be found thantye at se Of these Negroes were the leaders in Negro revolts in W schitone white men, women and children were mercilessly slaughtered. i a iscrimination or of On page 38 is the statement that, “Any act of discrimination Prejudice seine a Negro will become a crime under the revolutionary w." The anti-discrimination bills carry out this idea precisely! * + has At sent moment, of course, the Communist technique changed “it sould not aid in securing a continuance of lengdenie ot the expected help in Russian reconstruction if so crude a Dok Were circulated now. Nevertheless, as vai Daly Pr aiversity is book, “The Real Soviet Russia” ee by the Yale eh Press, 1945), this current attitude of the Communists ts ae y OF nist from which the Communists will return to their ruthless program when the current need has passed. James W. Ford, one of the authors of the pamphlet, ee Several times the candidate of the Communist Party for Mice ae “James S, Allen," the other author, is the alias for Sol Auer ; activities were a matter of record before the Dies Committee. i i iti " in a Soviet America” This special offset edition of “The Negroes in a " has been Broghe out in order that the people se fee . pe ae Standing of what is back of the present hullabaloo ua. 7 " a Nationat Economic CouncIL, Inc., April 1945 350 Fifth Ave., New York 1, N.Y.  Continue Your Study of These Vital Topics of Today COMMUNISM - SOCIALISM - FASCISM ECONOMICS - SOCIOLOGY - HISTORY SOVIET UNION - PLANNED ECONOMY These Subjects in Hundreds of Books, Pamphlets, Magazines for Sale at These Bookstores and Literature Distribution Centers Aberdeen: 514 E. Market St. Akron: 365 South Main Street Baltimore: 509 North Eutaw St. Boston: 216 Broadway Buffalo: 751% W. Chippewa, R. 7 Butte: 106 West Granite St. Camden: 501 Market St., Rm. 6 Chicago: 505 South State St. 2135 West Division St. 1326 East 37th St. Cincinnati: 117 E. 12th St., 2 fl. Cleveland: 1522 Prospect Ave. Dayton: 712 Wayne Ave. Denver: 522 Exchange Bldg. Detroit: 3537 Woodward Ave: Duluth: 110 West First St. Grand Rapids: 336 Bond Ave. Hartford: 88 Church St. Los Angeles: 224 So. Spring St. Milwaukee: 419 West State St. Minneapolis: 241 Marquette St. Newark: 1264 Raymond Blvd. New Haven: 280 Park St. New York: 50 East 13th St. 699 Prospect Ave., Bronx 369 Sutter Ave., B’klyn 25 Chauncey St., B’klyn Omaba: 2404 Parker Street Oakland: 567 12th St. Paterson: 201 Market St. Philadelphia: 46N. 8th St. 2d fl. 118 W. Allegheny Ave. 4023 Gerard Ave. 2404 Ridge Ave. Pittsburgh: 1638 Fifth Ave. Portland: 64 Alder St. Providence: 335 Westminster St. Room 43 Reading: 224 North Ninth Sacramento: 523 California St. St. Louis: 3528 Franklin Ave. Salt Lake City: 415 Hooper Bldg. San Diego: 852 Eighth Ave. San Francisco: 37 Grove St. 1168 Golden Gate Ave. 542 Valencia St. Santa Barbara: 208 W. Canon Perdido Seattle: 6141 First Av., Rm. 15 4226 University Way 24th and Russell Sts. Sioux Falls, §. D.: 223 E. 8th St. Spokane: 218 Washington St., Room 14 Superior: 601 Tower Ave. Tacoma: 1315 Tacoma Ave. Toledo: 214 Michigan Washington, D. C.: 513 F. St., N. W. Youngstown: 310 W. Federal St., 3rd fi. Write for a complete catalog to any of the above addresses or to WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS P. O. Box 148, Sta. D New York City  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 76 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/e97deac30de2f2d6b9a7296420e648df.pdf 55f65aad93a7cb20e13ea769071b4bda Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. Commercial and Residential Installations and Repairs UNDERWOOD Licensed Electrical Contractor "More Power to You:"= ~ ~ = -~E~L~E~C~T~R~l~ C=C ~ O~M ~P~A~N!Y L =======:::::=:::==---1720 DeKalb A venue, N. E . Atlanta, Georgia 90307 379-5588 Sept.20, 1967 Ivan Allen, Jr., Mayor 3700 Norl hside Drive, N.W. Allan t a, Georgia 30305 Dear Mayor Allen, It was only recently I read t his enclosed book dealing with the problem in our towns. The statemmts made the rein appalled me but, realizing this book was published by the Workers Library Publisher s ( a communist printing com_p3.ny) the statements then came to light to me as I'm sure they will to you. My concern is that a certain minority group in our society is being used and misguided by this conspiracy for the conspiracy's gain. I am sure if our city le aders were aware of what is broug ht out in this book, then you would t a ke action t o help prevent the cruelty imposed on this group by our enerey-. I appreciate your time and if I may be of help contact me. Sincerely, fa_ -r-~ John F. Underwood JFU/bu Copy of this letter sent to each alderman. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Commercial and Residential Installations and Repairs Licensed Electrical Contractor “More Power to You” 1720 DeKalb Avenue, N. E. Atlanta, Georgia 30307 378-3588 Sept .20, 1967 Ivan Allen, Jr., Mayor 3700 Northside Drive, N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30305 Dear Mayor Allen, It was only recently I read this enclosed book dealing with the problem in owr towns. The statements made therein appalled me but, realizing this book was published by the Workers Library Publishers ( a communist printing company) the statements then came to light to me as I'm sure they will to you. My concern is that a certain minority group in our society is being used and misguided by this conspiracy for the con- spiracy's gain. Iam sure if our city leaders were aware of what is brought out in this book, then you would take action to help prevent the cruelty imposed on this group by our enemy « I appreciate your time and if I may be of help contact me. cerely, F. See henurre John F, Underweed JFU/ou Copy of this letter sent to each alderman.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 75 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/2918d72dc2e2d0242233faff32dbab5d.pdf f865c3093949186dfea70d217c81f4f9 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. PLEASE NOTE have reprinted chis booklet by offset from a similar reprint made from the original, in 194 5, by The National Economic Council. Additional copies are available from us at the following prices: In lots of I to 99, at three for one dollar; I 00 to 999, at twenty-five cents each; I 000 or more, at twenty cents each. Order from \'(le .. l AM E RICAN OPINION Belmont, Massachusetts 02178 �FOREWORD T HE world is caught in the depths of a great crisis. Masses of people live on the brink of starvation. Discontent and un· rest are more widespread than ever before. Changes are taking place in society and in government. Intensive preparations for war and movements towards fascism are developing quickly. These are times of great changes and of quick transformations. The old ideas, upon which generations of people have been raised, are crumbling because life no longer justifies them. New ideas take their place. People in all walks of life are seeking new solutions, an effective way out of present conditions. What is the relation of the Negroes in the United States to this rapidly changing world? They are now living through one of the most trying times in their history. What is the way out? This question presents itself more sharply to the Negro masses than to any other section of the population. It is our purpose in this pamphlet to answer this question, We believe we express the minimum desires of the Negro masses when we say that they want at least: 1. A decent and secure livelihood; 2. The rights of human beings; 3. An equal, honorable and respected status in all public and social life. Capitalism has not been able to provide these needs, and is less and less able to do so. There are those who sav that by re· forming capitalism it can be made to fi II the neerls o'f the mas5es. We will show why this is impossible. There i-s only one real, effective way out for the masses. It is not an easy one. But no basic change in society is easy. This wa~ leads to a Soviet America. This is the only realistic vision freedom possible today. It must be achil'ved, it can be achie,·eh · • t e How? We will first show the basis of Negro slavl'TY 10 • g United States today. We will then show how all Levents are push•~e towards another revolution in the United StatP!I and wha t r;rY the Negro people will play in this revolution. We will then ·ble to describe the tremendous vista of freedom and advance pMs• in a Soviet America. THE NEGROES . in a SOVIET AMERICA by James W. Ford and James S. Allen d 2 P. PUBLISHED BY WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS BOX 148, STA. D, NEW YORK CITY, JUNE, 1935 o. �The Negroes in a Soviet America By JAMES W. FORD and JAMES S. ALLEN I. THE NEGRO IN CAPITALIST AMERICA BOOKER T. Washington once said: "No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized." He thought that capitalism would permit the Negro to develop business and manufacturing, and increase his ownership of land. In this way, he believed, the Negro could achieve an important economic place in the capitalist world. His whole philosophy was based upon this belief. "Agitation for social equality," he said, "would be extreme folly." Let each Negro train himself in industrial pursuits or in business, hew a place for himself in capitalist America, and only then will he be treated with respect, was his advice. But what has this wisdom led to? Economic "Progress" Let us first consider the question of landownership. During the Civil War and immediately after, the Negroes thought that taey would obtain the land-"forty acres and a mule." But nothing of the kind happened. Only very slowly and with much difficulty was it possible for some to purchase land. By 1910 only one-fourth of all Negro farmers owned some land, usually very little, the poorest and most heavily mortgaged. But for the last 25 years, capitalism has been taking even this land away from Negro farmers. In 1930 there were 40,000 less Negro farm owners tha..--. in 1910. In ten years, between 1920 and 1930, Negroes lost almost 2,000,000 acres of land. How much they have lost in the last five years, no one knows. But it is certain that land is being taken away now from Negro owners by banks, insurance companies, large landowners and other creditors, much more rapidly than before. On the other hand, the most brutal form of slavery in the country has been growing rapidly. The Negroes are the prin• cipal victims of this slavery. It is share~ropping and planta• a �tion tenancy. Everyone knows that when chattel slavery was abolished the plantations remained. Most of the Negroes became share-croppers and tenants on these plantations. They were actually prisoners, almost chattel slaves. Almost three-quarters of a century has passed since Emancipation. Has capitalism done anything to abolish this new slavery? . On the contrary! The plantation country to this day is like a prison, a veritable hell to which 5,000,000 Negroes have been consigned without any prospect of immediate escape. In fact, the slavery has even increased. In the cotton plantation area of the South, twenty-five years ago, 80 per cent of all the Negro farmers were croppers and tenants. But in 1930 their number had grown to almost 84 per cent. There are those who say that President Roosevelt and the "New Deal" are changing this situation. But it is clear to every Negro in the plantation country that Roosevelt has been helping only the bigplanters. His policies have resulted in increased slavery. When the crisis broke out in this country the large landowners in the South found themsel ws in a qu:m,-bry. Many of the banks and credit merchants failed and those who remained refused to extend credit. Many of the small landowners, who lived from hand to mouth, were wiped out. From the beginning of the crisis to March, 1933, over a half-million forced sales and foreclosures took place in the Southern states. Roosevelt came to the rescue of the large landowners by . pumping tremendous funds into the South, most of which went to the modern slave-master - the plantation owner. In nine months alone the Farm Credit Administration advanced about S300,000,000 directly to the planters. In this way, Roosevelt helped to holster up the plantation, on which millions of Negroes are enslaved. The Federal Government took over many of the debts from private banks ::md insurance companies and is now the biggest holder of mortgages in the South. This means that it now has a direct hand in maintaining the plantation slavery, that it is part owner, together with the big planter, of a vast prison country. The second step taken by Roosevelt was to increase the profits of the large landowners and the commission merchants by reducing acreage in the South. In 1933, while millions of people were in need of clothing, we were faced with the astounding 4 picture of ripe cotton being plowed under by poorly clothed fa~~ workers. The croppers and tenants never saw the money ~hie they were supposed to receive from the Governme~t for this act of destruction. The plantation master:;, the credit merchants, the ba11kc-rs, got the government checks. Thi,- i,- what a ~overnment farm agent in Mississippi said: "You know the government in Washi111-(t1Jn caused m,· a litt/e trouble here 0Bv mfstake they mailed sumc of the rhecks t: out to 'niirg~r' cruppers. They proLaLly didn't know wh~1. t 1e~ were d(1ing when they did it. Imagine givin:; a check ~o j nc1fg':r cropper! Of cour~e, I turned these checks nv~r to t anb '( 5 anyhow. They'll have lo gel the croppers ,to endorse_,t em c ore th<'y take tht'm to 1lie hank. llut that wont bP. hare!. '"j' h Acrea~e was cur again in 1934 under t~e Bankh: a1 Bil\ It is being cut again in 19:{5 as a result of a · democratic election in which the plant:ilion owners forced the Negro croppers and tenants to vote for reduction. . . This is not only a lfocimation of crops; it is also a decunation of hundrnds of thousands of human beings. Whole tenant f ~milies are being sf-'nt "dow11 the road" by the ~lante~s, or ~re be~ng permitted to eke out a miserable existence m their cabms domg forced labor for the government or the planter in return for S?I_'1e crumbs called relief. These landless and workless far1? families are beina "kept on hand" to be fo rced to work at plowmg, chop· · · ping or "cotton picking at staryall~n wages. Wages on most plan. tations are now between 25 and :>U cents a day. . Roosevelt's policies have had the effect of mcreasmg the slavery of millions of Negro toilers in the South. Cotton, the need of millions of unclothed, a necessity of mankind, has been turned into the mark of Negro slavery by capitalism. The Promise of the City It 1-eemPd to man\' people, especially durin~ the Wo~l d War and the years immed.iately following, that city life and mdustry would offer a means of escape from slavery 011 the land. The city and its industry had been practically forbidden ter• ritory for Negroes up to the World War. In the first place, the plantation masters and government agencies of the Bla~k Belt kept the Nearoes chained to the land and would not permit them to leave. E:en when industry began to develop in the South, the factory gates remained closed to Negro workers. Hope was 5 �dimmed when the textile industry, which grew so rapidly in the South, made it clear that it would not hire Negroes. The place of the- Negro, it was said, was on the plantation; their slave labor Willi needed there. Even to this day, the textile mills do not have any Negro workers at the machines. But during the World War a great shortage of labor existed in industry. Then only did the capitalists make an energetic drive to obtain Negro labor. Who does not remember the great hope of the exodus? It was compared to the Emancipation Act. The South was the land of the Pharaohs, the North "the Land of Promise". The Red Sea of capitalism was opening up to permit the Negroes to pass. But the exodus was already petering out in 1923. Employers bad more labor than they needed. The Red Sea aKain flowed back into its normal course. Almost twenty years have gone by since the mass migration ltarted. Years before, Negroes, in smaller numbers, had been m gaged in industrial pursuits. Yet it is a well-known fact that Negro workers have not been permitted to advance to the higherpaying jobs. They have been forced to the lowest status of all industrial workers, to the unskilled, heavy-laboring jobs. Today, no more than 10 per cent of all the Negro workers have held skilled or semi-skilled jobs. It is not because they cannot be skilled workers. Many of them are. It was a common occurrence in the South, ~ven h:fore the _present crisis, to find graduates of Tuskegee Institute, highly tramed mechanics and teachers work· ing as bell-hoy~ . in the hotels. But capitalism has not gi~en the same opportunities to the Negroes for advancement and training as it had given to white workers. The white workers, it is true, are wage-slaves under capitalism. They must sell their labo_r ~o an employer in order to live. They, also, are exploited. But it 1s clear to everybody that the Negro wage-worker is exploited even m~re. He is held back to the lowest level of the wage-workers, he Ill pushed back by capitalism every time be advances. Under President Roosevelt's "New Deal" this state of affairs has ~n officially recognized and given a legal status. The Industrial Codes have placed the official stamp of the Federal Government upon the double standard. The differential wage established by these Codes said in effect that the wages of Negro workers must remain lower than those of white workers. One 6 example will show how this works. The Code for the lumber in· dustry pla~ed the minimum wage for the North at 42½ cents an hour, and for the South, where most of the lumber workers are Negroes, at 24 cents an hour. Now capitalism is trying to evict the Negro workers from industry for good. Today there is an army of at least 15,000,000 unemployed in the United States. Among the Negro workers unemployment is many times greater than among white workers. The number of Negroes in families on relief increased from 2,117,000 in October, 1933, to 3,500,000 in January, 1935. In many place!! even jobs which were always held by Negroes are being given to white workers at the same or even lower wages. Nor has the Negro fared any better in the professions. Here again capitalism has held back with a heavy hand all efforts at advancement. In the whole country there are only 6,781 Negro physicians, lawyers and dentists. They_ also have_ been victims ~f segregation and discrimination, suffermg from madequate fac_1lities in the way of training and practice, and excluded from white institutions. Many of them are starving today. For a population of 12,000,000 Negroes there are only 50,000 Negro teachers, most of whom are not permitted to teach in white schools. The yearly salary of most of these teacher!' does not exceed $300. Push ahead in business, was another advice of Booker T. Washington. One is even met with this advice on all sides today. But even the development of a large Negro middle class has proven to be impossible under capitalism. In the whole country today, there are only about 25,000 retail stores operated by Negro proprietors. Most of these are small, overnight, "peddler" affairs. Why? Not because the Negro is not capable, but because big business has the monopoly of commerce and trade. Segrega· tion forces the Negro retailer to sell only in Negro neighborhoods. He has a poor clientele. He has no chance against the chain store. Today, many small business men are being wiped out. A small, well-to-do class, however, has tleveloped among the Negro people. The Negroes also have a millionaire or two. But this class has developed only at the expense of the rest of the Negro community. It gathers for itself a goodly share of the profits arising from the exploitation of the Negro masses. It is true that capitalism has not permitted the existence of any large Negro-owned industrial enterprises. The white ruling class is 7 �~he direct exploiter of the Negro masses on the plantations and in mdus!ry. But the Negro upper class has found a11other way to exploit the Negro masses. These were the words with h' h Th . omu:- Knicrht. Jr., chief . · W IC 0 prosecutor m the Srotbhoro C f I d · th d . use, re errc, lo Hevwood Putterso11 ur!ng e secon tnal at Decatur, Alubamu. . These words express the t . towards Ne roes wh' h ~on_ emptuous und msulting attitude in his I ~ h' . JC capitalism hreuthm•. "Keep the Negro S . I P ~ce :-t is Is the Watchword of the modern slave driver. 0 cia foshraci sm, persecution, segregation, insult have taken the • 1 p ace o t e s1aveowner's p t r d . . a erna ism un of Simon Legree's whip. Th f h" d" . . . e acts of J1m-Crowism I 11 k • ync mg, 1scnmmallon are so ~enera y nown a nd are 80 deeply branded in the heart of the egro masses that we need not go into detail here. Suffice it to say that the rulers of this country, especially and most openly in the South, have made the Negro a social outcast, have treated him not like a human being hut like cattle. They have gone to the greatest pains to brand the Negroes with the mark of non· humans. On street cars, trains, in railroad stations and places of amusement, on drinking fountains, the ruling class of the South has broadcast to the world: "Only whites here-only Negroes there!" In the North they do not use signs, but that is the only difference. There are written laws and there are unwritten laws. The three most important written laws with regard to Negroes are the 13th Hth and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of ' States. These are supposed to guarantee to .every the United Negro the full rights of citizenship and equality under the law. But these are only decorations on the Constitution. Negroe:; are not permitted to serve on juries in the South. A Negro voter in the South is either an object of a lynching party or a highly privileged character. Although such practices are supposed to he unconstitutional, has the Federal government, since the period immediately after the Civil War, ever done anything about it? These written laws are not enforced. But the written laws in 15 states segregating Nrgroes on public conveyances are very strictly enforced. There is one unwritten law which is also very severely en· forced. That is the law that lynchers of Negroes are not to he punished. What is the reason for this very severe persecution of the Negro masses? It is not to he found in any "natural hatred" of whites for Negroes. These acts of hatred and of persecution are caused by capitalism. First: The ruling class must use severe measures of oppression and persecution in order to keep the Negro peon on the plantation, in order to maintain that special slavery of the South. The capitalists also make use of the same measures to force the Negro to take the lowest place in industry. Second: The whole idea of the "superiority of the white race" and the practices of Jim-Crow are used to effect a severe separation of the white masses from the Negroes. Race prejudice grew out of the old chattel slave system. Then the slaveowners were afraid of a union of the oppressed "poor whites" with the Negro slaves. Capitalism has taken over this prejudice and uses it for 8 9 J_t makPs its profits l,y taking udvantag;c of St'"TP"atio11 and O the 1tlP·1s of "wh ·t , · · ·,, I ,., • I C superronty • f 0111! examiru;s a fist of the we~lthwst 1'Pgroes he will find that many of 'them have made their fortunes by specuht' er • l · . .. ' mi:, Ill rca estate m the !:-cgregateJ sec· ho~s 0 large cilles and by extnu:ting extremely hi"h rrnts from the,r lt·na11b . I Watt Terp· . 1111·11':1<,r1,11rP; . 1u h n F N Ncgm ·t · .,, tl11•· Nn•~ro ·" a,, Oscar DePnPst, etc. ) Others have bu'lt th · Ith · I · . · r up err wca rn t If! co,-met1c busuwss bv commercializinor ti . · I . f " J ·1 J " (M I , · ,.. 1r JC e,1 o w 11 e ac nme .C. J. Walker ()>cauty . · , Mrs ' · Ann·1c ;,)f . ·1· urn I,ee, A nl honv \ erton, etc.). Still others have ma<le the1· r· wea Ith 1n . th e 111. . . , !;Urnnce _and hanking business, closely ronnt.'clf'c) with n•al estate speculat10n and ( Anthony Overton, ,,. ,-- ('" S pau t·<l'111;.:. . A I landlorJism . etc. I. num H·r of Nc.,ro l)hvsicians ·ind . . . h 0 l d r · · ' mn11sters a\'e accum· I u ale small fortun,•s, nut in their pract1'ce hut . · I 1· ' in reu estute. Th ese peop (' l\'P 011 the body of tho t d N · T . " segrega c egro com· mun~ty. hey urc Ill fa\'ur of sep;regalion and oppose nil efforts to ~·1pe out SCgrt•gntio11. for it would mPan rlestrnyi11<r th I . .•. r their wealth. "' e M:-ls 0 ! It is clear, then, that C'Hpitalism has h1'nd~ d ti . " f h N · · ,.re· re «'.cu11om1c proi:,rcss o t c i egro pcu•Jl~ With the t' f h 11 1 I f . • excep 1011 o t e sma ayer o parasites, the Neµ:ro people are retarded h Id d wn vushed down to the lowest le l 1'h' . ' e o , · 7c: f . . ,ve · rs Is economic pro.,.r.css durlnl? · 1 years n cnp1tal1st freedom! ,., The "Stigma of Race" "That thing over thrre ! ·• �the same purpose. This will b ·1 d e c ear when one compares the oppression of the N earoes an of th F"I. . b perialism The r·1· c-_ e 1 ipmos y American im1 ipmos are also • d there is not as much . d" . an oppresse people. Yet pinos as against Nerr:reJuT~e m the 1:Jnited States against Filiof ocean prevent tho oFe~·1· . e reason is that about 5,000 miles e 1 1pmo masses fr · d . struggles in immediate t .h om carrymg on a1 1y con act wit the Am · 0 h ot er hand, the whites and Near . encan masses. n t 11e contact in the United St t O r°es come mto daily and constant or planter and engagi a ~s, 0 ten exploited by the same boss needs. The ruling classngh m chommf on struggles for their daily .. as t ere ore us"d d meth Leods to keep them apart. ,. extreme an severe t us now con~ider hr· n. d . The uhl" h- . ic } c ucat1011 and health p ic sc ool system is su d b . should remember that th N ppose to e open to all. We f e eO0 roes were · · II or starting a system of f hr prmc1pa y responsible mediately after the Civ"I ~e P\h1c education in the South imp ublic school system in :Uan a~ : first superintendents of the Toda th N . y out ern states were Negroes. y, e egro is the outcast of th bl. One million Negro child f h e pu 1c school system. ·1 oe · h ren o sc ool a II · More than a third f h N ' "' a re not m sc ool at the fi rst grade and tho tf e hegro pupi.ls never get beyond d b ourt s nev f ourth . In many sectionsreeof the I a va uce eyond the open only fo r two or th hp a nt~t1on country schools are M ree rnont s durmg the year . ore than half the population f . . . the state spends only $5 45 ° Mississippi is Negro. Yet "ld · a year fo r the d · f h ~ h I as compared with $45.34 for a . e uca~wn o t e Negro m Alabama it was $.i.'i7 , ·h. '. white p upil. In one connty Td . p 1. r ~ ite ch ild and $ l.5l per N rr o ay, many of the Ne"ro sch I et'>ro. 0 0 s have been closed down for lack of funds Ca it 1. .., . p a ism is !'acrificing the education of millions of children~ r The high disease and death rate reveal the severity of capital ist <' Is_ an:iong the Negro peop le instance, the death ra te f bxp oitatr_on. In Milwaukee, fo r · h · rum tu erculos1 N e1g t times as great as amon.r whites. . s among egroes was great as compared with N k C ' m Harlem three times as heart disease are twice ew or ity as a whole. Deaths from as great among Ne I n llf i, anhattan, where the Ne roe . groes as among whites. the total population aim -~ s 7nst1tute only 12 per cent of occurred among Neg;oes. os one- ourth of all infant deaths y 10 This high death and disease rate is due to the hard exploitation of Negroes, to lack of hospitals and of care, to the crowding of the segregated sections. In view of these appalling facts, knowing all the bitter details of our daily existence, is there any reason why we should permit capitalism to continue? The Reformers and the "Race Criers" There are still those who would have the Negro masses believe that capitalism can do better than it has in the past. These people range from out-and-out reactionaries to those who cover reactionary policies with radical drapings. Let us see what they have to say as to the way out. The Bootstrap Lifters There are still many followers of Booker T. Washington today who would have us lift ourselves up by our bootstraps, when many of us do not even have boots. But we have already seen, from 75 years of experience, that capitalism has permitted only very few to rise--at the expense of the rest of the people. Today, when the crisis is denying millions even the barest necessities of life, only a quack or an outand-out reactionary can give such counsel. But kind of agitation is still very strong. Pick up almost any Negro newspaper, listen to many of the "race leaders" and you will be advised to help build Negro business. This will solve all our problems, we are told. The executive secretary of the National Negro Business League tells us : " Business points the way to a breakdown of the barriers and handicaps which retard Negro progress." He, and many others, call upon the Negro masses to patronize Negro business, as the most effective means to protect themselves against persecution. How futile, how bankr upt is this advice! Everywhere the capitalists are cutting down p roduction, have closed factor ies, reduced cr ops. The big monopolies and trusts are getting greater control of manufacturing and of the market. Small businessmen ever ywhere are going b ankrupt. Even the largest Negro banks and insurance companies, the pride of the followers of Washington, h ave crashed: the two largest Negr o banks, the Binga State a nd the Douglass National; the "Capstone of Negrn business" --the National Benefit Life Insurance Company of Washington. this 11 �and others. The P. & H. Taxi Corporation of Harlt'm. t>mploying 750 workers, saw its last days during the crisis. The capitalist road of advance is now out of the question. The Negro upper class uses this argument in an attempt to win the Negro market. It has nothing in common with the real in· terests of the Negro masses. The Ballot and the Drawing Room In contrast to Booker T. Washington and his followers there arose the group ~f middle-class reformers. They were not and are not today entirely opposed to Washinoton's philosophy. We have in mi?d ~specially the founders and ~resent-day leaders of such orgamzatlons as the National Association for the Advance· ment of .. Colored People and the Urban League. We say t~ey are not entirely opposed to Washington and the T?skegee idea for they only objected to Washington's counsel that it would be extreme folly to agitate for social equality. They, however, accepted the basic part of the bootstrap lifters' -program; they ac~e~ted ~apitalism. On the basis of capitalism, it seems to them, it is still possible to make economic headway. !he N.A.A.C.P. began on a wave of resentment and anger agamst Bo_oker T. Washington's betrayal of the fight for equality. Beca_use, hke Washington, the N.A.A.C.P. accepted capitalism, ·it rec~ived ~he suppert of members of the white ruling class who behe_ved m Feform. The basic idea of the reformers is that it is possible to change capitalism for the better, that within the limits of the rresent system, by peaceful and gradual methods, it will he possible to do away with the oppression 0 £ the Negro peoplt>. But actual e~~nts have shown these people to be completely ~ro_ng. Conditions are actually growing much worse unrlt>r cap· 1tahsm.. The e~reme exploitation of the Negro workers ancl ~armers is not hem~ done away with; on the contrary, it is bt>in? mcreased. Acts of v10lence against l'<it>grot>s ha,·e multiplit>d. The methods of the N.A.A.C.P. have proved to be treacherous. The leaders of the organization are afraid to arouse mass move· ments. They prefer to meet representatives of the rulino class in the drawing room and make compromises with them. T~o recent cases show this plainly. In the Crawford case, where the Negro defendant was charoed with the murder of a white farm family in Virginia, the N.A. A.C.P. made an agreement with the prosecution as a result of 12 which Crawford was sent to prison for lift>. It turned out t]iat Dean Houston of Howard University, who acted as defense lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P., did not t>ven try to pro\'e the innocence ~f Crawford althouoh there was plenty of evidence to show _this. • e 1tted The case was carrit>d on quit>tly, no mass protest was perm • the sentence was not even appealed. From the very bt>oinning of the famous Scottsboro Case the N.A.A.C.P. attemptel to wrest the case from the hands of _the mass defense movemt>nt. They waged a bitter s~ruggle a~a1: ~ the International Labor Defense and the Commumsts. Why· cause they were afraid of the mass movement which had been aroused. They wanted to have quiet sessions with the Alabama lynchers, fix up the case behind the scenes. This would have meant sacrificing the lives of some of the nine Scottsboro boys and prisor, terms for the rest. The I.L.D., however, fought th: Alabama n'Ch courts and mobs, made the case known aroun the worla, roused millions of people. They fought not only for the lives of the boys but also for the right of Negroes to serve on juries in the South and other rights of Negroes. As a result of this method of fighting, the lives of the boys have been snatched from the electric chair four times. One of the principal lessons to he gained fro~ the fi~ht f~r the Scottsboro boys is this: It is possible to ohtam oertam vic· tories from the ruling class, but not by cringiilg, Uncle ~om ~r Judas methods. The only way such victories can be obtamed is bv rousin<T and orn-anizincr the masses, by rt>fusing to accept sops. · The r~former; have ~till another idea. They have a great reverence for the ballot, they think it can produce wonders. The leaders of the Socialist Party still cling to this old fairy-tale. The workers, they say, can elect themsehes into power an~ then peacefully bring about a change in capitalism. But what '.f thf" capitalists refust> to abdicate? Tht>v reply: "Well see then:' The miracle of the ballot! If the ballot can clo all they say it can how are the Negroes going to use it when 4,000,000 Negroes, eligible to vote, are disfranchised _? W~t>ll two o~t of thre; Negro eligible voters are not even permitted mto a votmg booth· We say that Negroes must have this right to vote, as w~ll as the other rights of citizenship. We must fight for these nghts. We say that the workers and the oppressed masses should u~ the ballot, the right of free speech and assemhl y, to elect theu 13 �ow~ representatives, and create their own organi~tions. We fight agamst every effort to take these rights away. But at the same time we emphasize that capitalism cannot be done away with by the ballot. We believe in using elections and_ our re?re~ntatives in elected bodies to rally the people a~~mst ~ap1tahsm. As long as capitalism permits the rights of citizens~1p,_ the working class should use these rights against the cap1tah~ts: ~ut anyone who tells you to depend upon the ballot and c1v1_l n~ht~ for your dt>fen:-:f' is betraying you. for, as has h:ippen~d m Gnmany, in Italy and in Austria, the capitalists take these rights away, forbid the right of free press, free assem· bla~e, free speech and the vote. And what then? Does not the rulmg class in the United States more and more deny the rights of citizenship to workers, have they not 1thyays denied these rights to Negroee? The "Race Criers": Black Patriotism Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, former editor of The Crisis who recently departed from the N.A.A.C.P., is today the clearest and foremost ~xpo~ent of Black Patriotism and race solidarity. We will exam· ine his arguments one by one, for they are the most complete and he!lt arguments for this point of view. We will then show how ~angerou~ such ideas are to the strug~le for Negro freedom. F,r3 t arg~ment: The Negro upper class, says Dr. DuBois. is not an exploiter of Negro labor. We have already shown that this is not true. It is rnrrect that th~re are very few Negro manufacturers or large landowners ~ho hire labor and exploit Negro workers directly. But there ~8 ~ Negr~ uppn class which lives by means of segregation. It 1s 1~ the mterest of this class to defend seare ..ation or tlw \·erv basis of _Negro business would be wiped ou;, On th: other hand, segregation is the worst feature of the oppression of the Negro massee. It is in the best interests of these masses to wipe out segregation. The interests of the masses and of the Negro upper cl ass cl~sh. In orde_r to obtain real equality, which means doing away ~1th s~gregalton, it is necessary to fight not onl y against the white rulmg c:la~s hut against the Negro upper class as well . Furthermore. tl 1s clear that the interests of the Negro upper class are the same as those of the white rulina class. Both classes wish to maintain segregation, and with i~ the basi~ of ~egro oppression. This unity of interest is shown clearl v in' 14 . action. On many occasions we have seen the so-called "respectable leaders of the race" openly cooperating with the ruling class. Second argument: The members of the Negro upper class, says Dr. DuBois, "bear the brunt of color prejudice because they express in word and work the aspirations of all black folk for emancipation." He goes on to claim the Negro upper class as the leader of the Negro people towards a new future. We know that a class which lives from crumbs off the table of American bia business of the Rockefellers and the Fords, which 0 ' accepts capitalism as the basis for its own existence, can not lead a strenuous and militant struggle for Negro liberation. But DuBois tries to dress this cringy warrior in shining armor, for he fears another class. He fears the working class. The workers as a class are the only consistently revolutionary class in present..day society. If properly organized and led, th~ can stop the wheels of industry. They are like an army: big industry has thrown the workers together, in large disciplined · masses. They organize in unions to fight for better conditions. To win better conditions they must fight against the capitalists. This struggle develops into a struggle against capitalism itself. The workers are the only class with the power to overthrow capitalism and build a new society. T hey lead the rest of the exploited population to this goal. It has been one of the most inspiring facts of recent history in the United States, that the white workers have begun to overcome white prejudices and lead in the struggle for Negro rights. This is in part due to the economic crisis. As they have lost their jobs, as their conditions have grown steadily worse, they have seen the necessity of uniting with their fellow black workers aga inst the employers. But it is also because of the fight of the Communists against prejudice and for working class solidarity and Negro rights. In the last six years, since 1929, the following high Iy significant events have occurred: A share-croppers' union, under Communist leadership, has been organized in Alabama and other Southern states, with a membership, at the time of writing, of close to 10,000 members. This is the first time that such a large and fighting union of share-croppers has been ahle to exist, to lead struggles against the plantation masters and to continue to grow. The Communist Party has been organizing white and Negro 15 �workers in the South. As a result, the feeling for solidarity has grown even in the American Federation of Labor Unions in ~e South, as, for instance, in the United Mine Workers of America in the Birmingham region. Under the leadership of the Communists, a mighty stru.g~le for Negro rights is being waged in the South. The outstanding example of this is the Scottsboro Case. In the North, largely as a result of Communist policy and agitation, larger and larger numbers of Negro workers are pa~t· icipating in the labor movement. There is a growing solidar~ty of white and Negro workers in the fight for unemployment m· surance ~d relief and in the struggles of the trade unions. This movement of solidarity and of unity has also been joined by Negro intellectuals, teachers, doctors and other professionals, who have left the reformers and understood the need of a revo· lutionary struggle against capitalism. Dr. DuBois expresses the fear of the Negro upper class for this movement. He is in favor of "race" solidarity and opposes the solidarity of white and Negro labor, which he tries to prevent. Third argument: He uses an old weapon of the white ruling class. He tries to turn the anger and resentment of the Negro masses not against the white capitalists and the Negro Uncle Toms, hut against the white workers. The exploitation of the Negro workers, in Dr. DuBois' own words, "comes not from the black capitalistic class hut from the white capitalists and equaUy from the white proletariat". He goes even further_, charging th~ white workers with causing the "lowest and most fatal degree of the suffering of Negro labor. The prejudice of the white workers, according to Dr. DuBois, is inborn and cannot be changed. The white workers cannot be trusted. They are the enemies of the Negro masses. To believe Dr. DuBois means to give up all hope of liberation. It cannot he denied that race prejudice exists among large sections of the white workers. On many occasions, white workers have participated in acts of discrimination against Negroes. But, any sensible person will ask, what is the cawe of this prejudice? Is it instinctive and unchangeable? We have already seen that race prejudice arises like a stench from the plantation system and from capitalist exploitation. We have seen that capitalism has fostered this prejudice in order to 16 . . . f l ~ om mas,;es and prewnl the mamtam the oppre,-~ 1011 0 . 1 H' ' r,.. B t . ha,·r also ,-c-en that unity of the whitc- workers with I IJt'm.l lu \\ke und ..... the "hill· . f d . I t lC )aC ·<rrO <. this prejudice begms to a r 1.11 0 strll""le ~ obtain their nee<l!-. workers unite with the Negrors 111 a '""' . f re'udict' Wh 0 .1re the real carnNs o P J We ,;hould also ask : ' . • That "rction of • ? A <l WC' mu'-t an!'\\f'f · · m the labor movemPnt · n · k'lled the better· , . h · lu<lr'-' tlw more s 1 h the labor movement w ic IIH' · b · lNl bv the falsr off sections of the workt-rs who hba,·c I et'rt1 m1l"·Hlrr;hi1> of thr and temporary " pro!-prri't Y" 'and I :Y t ir . np £'.the workers ha d. American Fedt'ration of Labor. T 115 ,-Pct10n ° 1 . ll bein" and d ·. f peqwtua \\e ~ het>n lull<'d lo slt·ep by the IP,un °] b.. n-"tli ·un Green, Mat· . , t1ie treacherou,- promises o f p l' ,"H'<' ·· · ma, f' ·' " • .· under . I pon the com1itions . But prejudice <lepencls ,;o mur i uf h ker'- influenced by . we live, . which th at even th'1" st>t:lion o t . r. wor I .- d the Ne"ro . I I . .. · IT il'- att1tuc e tow,u s " ,, <l the GrPl'll crow is a ,:o c l,lll,-lll,- · " · _1 r-11-. of labor I · · · · tint the;;e an:,. oc ' · · f worker,-. The reason or t ir,- i;- . .' • _ f the rconom1c . l · · ·t '" cl 0 ... ,t,on bec:au:-f' 0 l 11 are lo~, II;.{ l 1r1r pnvi ',..e · l h. out of emp oy· . . k')I d . k .... h·in· wPn t ,own .. cns1~. \la11Y ~ · 1 e \\Or ei . ' . d their "f'n<' ral cond 1t1 11ns menl. tlwir wages havP bf'f'I~ rcdf utc d{i 1~ in onlrr to liw. on·r to f 1µ l . anizt•d work-ers, are wor,:e. iev, too, ·111 b' ' Ill" r . 1·1z1• t Iiat I IIt' gn'··1l nr--" They beu in to rea ."· · o. u1101 I :g, · . ., in order • I:' . l <T"\n!Zf'tl rnlo t le. Ulll 011 . induclin" the \e .. ror~. mu;:l >c or,,, I ... Proof r ,.. . I ll · ck" ,,f thr emp O)e11;. to defend th<·m,-dws a•Talll!-l lie 3 ' 1 · · . · .J strikes "' f 1 . ,r.,an I zallon anu of thi s is th<' ITreal wave o trac l ' unw11 ( " i:• 19:Y' which lwcran lo sweep the country m · .:>. b k ··,rd ,ecti11n "' f . I , 110'-'t ac ", · Thr Soutlwr11 workn;:. "l111 ,11111 llH I f. •rwntions most . .01·k·111 -1-t ... , h l\t' 1r1·11 or gt · ' f of the J\ nwrwan \\ /! < • • · • ' • • . N! , · the cour:-r o . . 1 1 ·11 .. . 111TJ lld1n'. ' O\\. 111 I per,-1!"lc-nlh 111cu i.:at,·c 111 1 r.H' . l . . ti , ·u e dn-e · . f I . ' ·t 1lw1r c,p n1lPrs If'~ ' . a nrowi11g W,l\·c n strugµ ,, aµair,.. \I ti .111 .111 yonc cl,:e, ~ 1· 1 · .· 1 th, Ncu-rn 1111rkrr,-;. or<' 1• ' · I opm~ !'O II anty II I 1 I 1 ·o . . ,· I' 'l' alll!l<II" I 1ese 1111 we rcalizi• tl1e diffi("ull, of "'.IT'.'" f fill <,JU< ~;ul tlw {i~hl for Tl 111 ,IIH \. ,.. wor k·ers. H·,· Il,l\t' I'(· ' ·11 ft.d 1t .·,..IIIC't' . I". I ,1 ·us illu!'lrat" thi~. Lread an<l life is ,-tro11µer tl1:111 prt'Jllt II P . •, f bout . . f I S th thr rr wa,; a !-!r11up o a In an ind11,-1nal c1lv o I If' • nu ('Ill lon·d nwhlcrs, who a dozen \\ hill' worker,-. tllll~t of thr_111 t : ;nw v would mPet Lecanw i11tc-rc·stl'il i11 tlw C'.1mn~u111!'-I.· h,1r '(~ ,1rn1u.11i,-t or<T,mizer. ti ll• •..,,tu·1t11111 "rt a ,n , . onr.e a ,,1·1· k lo <I,,cu,-;s ' I , , r!'dr that 1t . . I. . , .·, I l ·e theY knew alH ,1~r . I· rom tht'ir own Hllf'r exp, i u t ·. I \ " workers 1n 111th t w · t>,...ro was nr!"l'~!",ll"~ I(, ' ,,·g,t , nize to!!;{'1hrr , 1i th<'w Woll. and their cohorts. ·r, . ., ~:l �==------ - - the same unions. For during the great railway shopmen's strike in 1922 their union had been smashed by the employers simply because the_union had refused admittance to the molder's helpers, who were l\egroes. When the strike broke cut. man v of the Negro workers saw no reason for helping the white wo~kers who had refused to admit them into the union and fi. (Yht for their demands. The result was that the employers now plu~ed the Neo-ro helpers in the molder's jobs, at lower wao-es of course and broke both 0 the strike and the union. ' But these white molders in their discussions with the Com· munist organizer, objected to social equality. One conversation ran somewhat as follows: White worker: I don't like Negroes, and I don't see why I .s hould sit beside one at a meeting or 0 11 a street car. Communist: Now you agree that white and Neo-ro workers shoul~ orga~ize together ~n the same union . Lt>t us i~agine that there 1s a stnke. There will he a strike committee. On this strike committee there will be both white and Neo-ro workers for es· peciall ~ in time of struggle we mu~t keep our ~ a nks united'. !"trong. . White worker : That's right. We'll have to keep our picket Imes strong, and slop any white or Negro scabs. Communist: It will he necessary for this strike committee to meet almost continually. You will not be a ble to meet in a public ha ll, for thugs and the poli<.:e ma)' be aftl'r you. and you cannot afford to ha ve the leadership of the strike put out of commission. You m~y have to meet in your own house, perhaps. W htte worker: Yes, if there is no other way out. Communist : Your home is small. You will have to use your largest room, the parlor. You will have Negroes in your p arlor, for you cannot Pxclude Negroes fro m the strike committee meet· ing. The str ikr is the_ most important th ing. This strike ma y be a very hard one. Durmg the most crucial time, it may be neces~ary lo mee~ late into the night, a nd go into action again earl y m the mormng. Some of the Negro members of the Com mittPe may live in the opposite end of town. They cannot go home. They may have to stay over. Wou ld you deny them the hosp ita lity of your home? Social eq uality, you see, becomes a necessity of the strike, of the class struggle. If you do not practice thi~ social equality, you will lost> the ;;upport of the Negro worker;; an d thP strike will be lost. 18 The white workers were a little taken aback. They thought it was driving things a little too far, although they could ~ot deny the logic of this argument. When in the local ele~hon campaign the Communist Party ran a Negro worker. as candidate for Mayor, these white molders refused to mee~ with the Communist organizer. But their attitude changed qmckly enough. Shortly after, the city cut down on relief. The Unemployment Council and the Communist Party called for a demonstratrnn of protest. Fully five thousand workers, both whites Ne~roes, responded. But the police broke up the demonstration immediately beating uo one of the speakers and arresting three. The • . to t he Unemp Ioyment workers' wera incensed. Large numbers came Council hall which could seat no more than 100 persons. On !11e long wooden benches were seated white and Negro workers s~de by side talking excitedly about their experiences, and cursmg . common ' . and the city · a dm'm1stra · f10n. And m terms the police talking just as excitedly with a group of Negro workers were some of these white molders whom it had been so hard to con· vince. The actual facts of life, their common experienoes with the Negro workers, had brought them together. · · 1s · h m"lt· P reJ·udice This is the way workmg class so I'd I anty may remam but it becomes less important, is superseded by the needs of the' daily struggle. The white workers will overcome _the hindrance of prejudice, because they must do so in order to l~ve. Now, Dr. DuBois, in rousing the enmity of ~~ Negroe~ ag~m.~t the white workers, as do other upholders of race sohd~nty , helps to prevent this unity. He takes advantage of the distruSt of whites which has been imbedded in the hearts of the Negroes by long years of oppression. He fans and builds this distrust. The conclusion: And what is the solution proposed by Dr. DuBois? · I "The only thing that we not only can, hut must do, 1s vo untarily and insistently to organize our economic and social power, no malter how much segregation is involved." Now if this is not an outspoken defense and support of segregation we do not know what is. Negro salva ....:-::.i is to come-· through ' segregation, the watchword of th e parasites among the Negro people! We have not much 10 add about the new Garveyites, about the movement led by the "Black Hitler" Sufi, the exponents of an? 19 �the 49th State and other similar race movements. They are all based_ on the same ideas expressed so well by Dr. DuBois. Whether it be a return to Africa or the creation of a 49th state for Negroes o: some other such Utopian, unrealizeable schemes, the~e provide no way out for the Negro masses. These plans a 7sume suppo1rt and cooperation of t~e white ruling class. They ~1stra~t the_ N_egro masses from effechve struggle against American 1mpena~1sm. T~ey lead deeper into the dangerous net of r~ce segregahon, which satisfies only the present interests of the Negro upper class and the ruling class of the country. These movem~nts towards race segregation have recently had a ~ew lease on life. They have grown as a result of the crisis which has ru~ned many Negro middle class people, who are desper~tely seekmg a way out. The increased persecution and terror agamst the Negroes has fanned this movement. Many participate because they honestly believe that this is the way out. . Among 1;he new movements of this character are those which aim to obtam "1' ob . . s f or Negroes" . Among these are the Costini movement m Baltimore. the Negro Alliance in Washinaton D.C., an~ the 143.215.248.55 moveme11t in Harlem. These movemen~s ;onfine their_ ~cllv1lles to individual establishments in the Negro communities. So small and few are these business houses, that it is clear that they could onlv, provide a 1·1m1"ted num b er o f JO · b s f or N 1 egro workers and would in no way help solve the problem of mass_ une:nployment. These movements, then, have the effect of hmdenng the struagl · o e f or unemp Ioyment insurance for all workers and for adequate r el'1ef . They sh unt this · struggle mto · a closed alley. . But juSt as dangerous to the real interests of the Nearo masses 1s the · strength enmg · ': . effect , of this movem en t m separation of the wlute and N:gro workers. For the leaders advocate the replacem~nt of white ~orkers employed in Negro neighborhoods. In this_ way they. d1rect the resentment of the Negro workers not rtgamst t~e rulmg class but against the white workers. Instead we should duect all our efforts towards the organization of the Negro wo_rkers together with the white, the opening of the doors of all um?ns to Negr~es, equal opportunities for jobs in white as well as m Negro ne1.ghborhoods, and to obtaining adequate insurance for the unemployed from the Federal Government. Another movement especially dangerous at this time is the 20 Pacific Movement of the Eastern World, which has as its main slogan: "United Front of Darker Races tnder Leader~hip of Japan." The agents of the Japanese ruling class have organized and sponsored this movement in the Cnited States. Their p~rpo~e is to try to create difficulties for the ruling class of Amcnca ill case of a war between Japan and the United Stales. Such a w:•r is n11w very possihle-a war between two brigands for the spoil!! and riches of the East. But the Japanese ruling class is no mort> a friend of the Negro than is the ruling class of the l_;nited States. The Japanese capitalists have not hesitated to subdue and rule Korea with an iron hand although the Koreans art' a colored people. They have made all haste to grab Manchuria and other sections of Northern China. They carry on a rrlentless w~r against the Chinese people. They are now intriguing even 111 Africa and ar1\ penetrating the Philippine hlands with the purpose of seizing territory there ali;;o. At tlw same time, the lap· ane;.e rulino-r class is carryina on the mo1et ruthlt•ss kind of ter· ,., ror against _he toiling masses of Japan, suppressing tracle union:and peasants' organizations, ~mashing str-ikes, etc. In this strucrale between the J. ap,rncse and Arnerican ruling ""' . class for the division of the East and for the right to exp Iotl additional masses of toilers, we side with neither. We wish for the defeat both of the Japanese and of the Amt'rican ruling class. We wish to see then, both o,·erthrown; capitali,-m in ]dpan as ":ell as in the United States destroyed. Our task is to fight agmn~t American imperialism, ju:' t as the task of the Japanese workt·rs 15 to struggle against Japanese imperialism. Japanese capitalism is now one of the principal enemi~s of the Soviet Union. It is seizing additional territory in North China in ord r to be better prepared for a war against the So· \'iet l!nion. Japanese statesmen freely admit this. Japanese Lrnops an conc1:P'rate<l on the Soviet borders. The Soviet l:1iio11 is different from all the other countries in the world. There capitalism has. alrP,ady b:en overthrow·~'. the workers and farmers rule; machmcs. foctones, banks, rat roads and land ar<> in the hands of the toilers. Colored peoples of all races }iye in the territory of the :,o\'icl l.'nion. The~ 1wuplPs enj oy the fullest et\ualit\' and frpcdom. Any act or exprr,a!-inn nf race prejudice 1~ r.onsiclcred a crime. Thei;;e facts ha\'t' !wen fully confirmed by sue.:-, pt'ople a!' Paul Robe;;.on and 21 �other prominent Negroes who have either visited or who live and work in the Sovirt l :nio n. Robinson. a Negro mechanic, i!' a member of thP :\1oscow SoviPL th<> chiPf o-overnmental bodv of the capital of the Soviet Union. The S1)\'iet o-~vernment has re~ouncr cl all t_he specia l pri\·ilrges formerly held by the Tsar in China. Persia, Turkey and o thn Ea$lern countries. And yet the _agent~ of JapanP!"e capitalism are spread in~ the lie that the Sonet Un10n 1s one of those "white nation!"" whi ch seeks to dominate the col o red proples of the world! From Dr. DuBois throug h the new editions of Gar\'n and tht' intrig ur.s of J aparw,-e rapitalisb there runs a common streak: race loya lty,· race solidarity, race patriotism! Will these so lve thf' problem of th_r. Ne~ro people? For a reply one need only ask: Has S<'gregat1on solved this problem? Is it not true that segrr.gation is the prohl r.m, the ve rv thino which has to be wiped out? And th~sr $avior;o propn!-1' · to he~p still more and e1·er more segregation upon u;. ! The Threat of Fascism of th,• lead in!! fa1ci~t journals in Germ1\uy say~: In each NPgro, en~11 in one of thr. kindest disp11sition is the latt>nt brutr and thr prilllitive man who can be ta med nr itlwr ~y r.e 11 turit•s of !"la vc ry nor by a n e xterna l varni;;h of civiliza tion. All ~s,-i~i lation, a ll ed ucati on is bound to fail on accc,unt of the racial inborn fea ture:; of the blood. One can therefo r«" undrrstand wll\' in the Soutl l [ f 11 • . _ .. . 1crn $ a tes o .·, men ca] sheer nt'CT"· si~y compe ls the white _r;i.ce to act in an abhorrent, and perh,1p,e\rn c ruel m,11111L·r a"'am"l the Nc"roes A J f f c• o . 111 , o eo urse, mosl u h N t e 1 «"~roes ~hat ar: IvnchPd do not meri I all\- r t>!!re t." Spokenhke a _Kleagle of ~hP Ku Klux Kiani This expres.S'eS the thrrat of fa scism to the J\e,.ro <11 ou) ) ·1 t h L' · .1 . o ~ c I cnme o t e •n ll t:11 Stairs. 1 he co un trv. wou ld br.· nnt- rl u m a· m · o f th r '-Upe r- K K K . 1'he 1N'e<> ro would be the ,-11· •f ·· · f f · - · · : r ~ 1, \ 1ct1m u a,;c1:::t per;;ecul1011 · and murder. Lvnchin 1 spar t o f tne 1. ·. "'o- would bPcome the n a 11ona f . asc1st mercrnanes. Already tht- budclino- fa'-cJ·'-t · 1· · . o - - orgamza 1011~ m th . into their is country have t, . wnttrn the dci:tradation of the Neoro prowam as t I1cir most sacrrd princip lr. F_a:<=ism is rapidly growing in the l:nited States toda,. As cond1t1ons grow worse, as the masses of people become · more and more dissatisfied and st>ek a way out of the misen· impc,1-ed ~ Ill' 22 . by capitalism, the capitalists turn to th e road qf fascism. It i~ the last line of trenches for capitalism before the onru:;h of the · re \•olutionary army. When fascism comes rnto power, a·:s wr ;,ee in the fascist countries of Europe, the last liberties are taken away from the masses. The trade unions and all independent organizations of the masses are smashed; only governm~nt or co~pany unions and fascist organizati ons are permitted. An open dictatorship of the capitalists rules the country. One can well imag ine what the lot of the Negro people would be u nd e r s uch a dictatorship. Under President Roosevelt, the road is being pa\·ed for fa~cisrn. With the help of the N.R.A. labor boards, the attempt I!! heing made to force the workers into company unions, to abrogate the right to strike, or to place the unions entire ly under government control. More and more power has been concentrated into the hands of the President who turns more directly to the hiuh financial moguls of Wall Street for his orders. There are ra;id preparation~ for war and increased propaganda of nationalism and patriotism. But the President a nd his aides carry out these policies under cover of man y phrases and promises a bout helping the people. The people are radica l-minded ; Roosevelt, therefore, uses some radical phrases. This al so i!" a method of the fascists, who have made demagogy a supreme art. He talks about .chasing the 1111111ry-dianµ;ers from tht> lt'mple , but aicls big business. But there are othr.rs with their ears close to the ground who · the use o f anti-cap1 · ·1a ISt Iango even further tha n Roosevelt m g uag<'. Thest> are the budding fascist leaders, like Father ~oughlin, ·W illiam R. Hearst and Huey Long. Father Coug~~m an~ Huey Long are clever men who talk about the inequalities an injuMict>s of cap italism and because of this get a ready response from m any people who do not yet understand how to do away with these injustices. Hearst throughout his whole life h~s ~een a \·irio us enemy of the workers and a loyal defender of cap1tahs;Hc realizes th;,t thr. Coug:hlin and Long methods are today t e · to pro 1ong t h e 1·f ·sm · He therebest 1\ a\" 01• trnng 1 e o f capi·tal 1 . f fore supports thcr~ and offers them the services of his cham 0 anti -labor newspapers. But it wa,; with language s~ch as these men use that Hitler built his fascist storm troops m Germany. Hitler obtained his funds from the biggest industrialists and finan- r 23 �cier>- of Germany, just as C't'rtnin bi!! liankers in the tnitecl States are today beginning to suppo;t budding fascists in the l :nited States. Hitler also talked about limiting fortunes, doing away with unemployment, re-dividing wealth. et~. But these only remained empty promises after he came into power. That Huey Long, a representative of the plantation masters 01 the South, that Father Coughlin, linked to Wall Street through the Committee for the Nation, that Hearst, the kina of anti-labor and anti-Negro propagandists, should have to talk ~"ainst ouManding evil~ of_ cap!talism in order to save it shows on: i,nportant thing. ~ap1t~lt~m is on the brink of destruction. People nu longer believe m 1t. The turning point in history has come. The mas!:ies of Negro people certainly have no desire to see the rresent system of society in the United States continue. It has meant more suffering and slavery for them than for any other section of the population. What are the important chano-es which have to he made? How can they be made? " II. THE NEGRO AND REVOLUTION Two Revolutions in One . The pro~lem of Negr_o liberation has two aspects. The first the question of equality, Here we ask: what must be done to re~ove the basis of _the special persecution and oppression of t~e Negro people, to wipe out lynching, segregation, sucial ostra· c1sm as well as extra-exploitat_ion on the land and in industrv? The sec_ond is common to all w~rkers and exploited, whether they be white or Negro. Here we ask: what must be done to wipe out wage-slavery, unemp loyment , pO\·erty, crises and war? . These quest10ns are not entirely separate, but are connected with each other. We s~all first consider each separately and then show how the solulton for the first flows into the solution for the second. JS The Rebellion of an Oppressed Nation Th~ special oppress.ion of the Negro people in the United States 1s due to the firmly _rooted remainders of chattel slavery. Every one know:s. that while chattel slavery was abolished as a result of the Civil War, freedom-such as even the white workers have under capitalism-did not take its place. Elements of the old chattel slave system remain 10 this very day. 24 \ ~ These remainders of chattel sla,·ery can be <liviJed into t_he economic and the social. The most important economic r~ma 1'.1• den; of sla\'ery are the plantation system and share-cropp_ing Jll the South, which we have already described. But t~1e exi~te'.•;~ of these in the South not onlv enslaves the Negroes m the Bia Belt, but drags do, ,1 the '.\egro population throughout the country. It al:,.o affects the white population in the South. There an' many white sharP-croppt'rs whose conditions are only little bt'ttf'r than those of the Negroes. They will not be freed from _the lef~overs of the chattel-sla\'e svstem unless the Negroes are hberatf' · The most important s~cial heritage of the chattel-slave system is the idea of •·white superiority" and race prejudice. 1:hese ideas were not wiped out becaµse chattel slavery was not entirely wiped out. Alexander Stephens, the vice-president of the Co~d ·' on this f ederacv. said that the cornerstone of th e S out h reste up . great physical, philosophical and moral truth that ~he _Neg:: is not eq ual to thf' white man, that slavery-subordmatJon d' · " That the superior race--is his natural and norma I con itJon. remains the philosophy of the ruling class of the South tod~yTo fully realize how much of chattel slavery still remains in the South one has onlv to know that the largest mass of Negroes still live in the territor; of the old ~lave plantations. The plan· tations have remained 'and have imprisoned a large portion of the Negro population. On this territory-the Bla~k Belt~th e Negroe!' are in the majority of the populati~n. ) et precisely here is the centPr of the enslavement of the J\,egro pe_opl~- . 11 . Jt WI As long as tht' plantations an d ;.hare-uopprnp;~ ren~am, he impossible for !\iegroes to obtain equality. For Ill order to riae above the plantation !eve!. it Is fir!'t m~ces!'-ary to remo~e th ~ plantation and didde the land among the tillers of the soil. This can only be rlone by the organized power o~ the mas!SeS of Pxpl oitf'd share-croppers and farmers on tht' land._ ~uch a complt>te tran~fonm1ti on. howe, er. 11·i II not come o,·rrn11?"ht and can be succe!'sful onlv as thr result of organiwtion. preparation and proper leadership. Tlw rapid ~rowth of the Share-Croppers Union of Alabama and of the Te1,ants' Union of Arkansas shows that the situation i!' ripe for rapicl organization. This land revolution will also be joined by the hundreds of thousands of white share-croppers and poor farmers who ha~e suffered from the plantation and credit system. They, too, will 2.S �the neGessity of throwing the large landowne rs off their back:!, escaping from the t.yranny of the credit masters and the usun·rs, and of giving land to the landless. Seventy-five years ago, the North went to war i11 orJer to destroy the power of the slaveowners. That. too, was a re rnlution. But it was not "finished. Our task is to finish it. But the revolution will not stop with the seiiure of the land. That will just he the beginning of a complete, really basic change in the homeland of lynch terror. For just consider where this land revolution will take place: precisely in the plantation country, where the l\egroes are today the most oppressed ~ction of the population and wlwre they form the majority of tht~ population. Let us imagine such a revolution taking place in the Mississippi River Delta. Here there are huge plantations. In ~ome counties the Negroes are as high as 90 and 95 per cent uf the total population; throughout this area they are not less than 60 per cent. With the power of the plantation owners destroyed, a new kind of government will he set up by the farmers and the "orkers in this territory. For the first time Negroes and op· pn·ssed "poor'" whites will really enjoy democracy. The Negroes "·ill play the leading role both in the land revolution and in the rww revolutionary governments. The same will occur throughout the plantation area-from southea!'lern Virginia, down through the Carolina,- ,and central Ceorgia, a<.:ro!',- Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, rcachin~ even into Arkansa~ and parts of Tennessee and Texas. Now will be 1ho opportunit~ to reall y e~tablish the basis of Negro £rcedu111. This land, on which the 1\egroes h ave been e nslaved for genera· tiomi, can then Le made into a free land. It can he proclaimed as a new country, in which the land has been freed from thr exploiters, where the majority-the l\egro people-rule with the cooperation of the white :nasses in the territory. The white mas~s on the land will support this new govern_n ient for it will mean that their right to land is also recognized, that for the fir~t time they, loo, will have the benefits of free f>Ublic school 1•«lucatio11, frt>edom from usury, etc. The old South "'·ill no longn remain . The :\egrncs will come into their own. The real test of freedom for the Negro people in the Black Belt lies in their right to self-determination. Unless they can chose freely fur themselves what the relationship of this new 11ee 26 . S h le they will not government will he to the Umted tales as a w O , • . · power in Washmgton h e free. If the capitalists are st1·11 m h h "'e ·11 d try to crus t e recan rest assured that t h ey w1 oppose an d f l hellion of the I\e"ru people. The Negro people nee pfowefr u . c, d d f d th . revolution or ree· a 11 1es to carry throu"h an to e en is . l . h o ll . th workmg c ass, t e dom. They will have such an a Y 111 e . f h d secllons o t e leading force in the struggle,; o f a 11 oppresse 1 . t" population of the United States ,1gain,-t capitaliSt · exp tta 1~· \\·e must now conside r tlw rt·1·1ilutio11 which will ta e P a<e ° throul!hout the country . The Proletarian Revolution . · The United States Capitalism is aivin° birth lo rern1ution. . . l . . o o . I . . n · . "l Bnt1sh l onun,1was f rcatr.d a~ the result ol a n•y,, ut1 on a'°a lll- . . h . . 1 I 1· . •volut1on ao-,unst t e 0 t1on. It stren,,.thenc<l 1tself as I 1c res u t o H re . n . . 1· . cl C3)' lll 0n lt can 11 0 • slaveowners in 1861. Now capita 1,;m J!" e I . lonner supply the needs of life t o those who produce. f t 1: ;'.1 o . . .. . -w s)·stem O soc1e ~. outworn system. It mu::-t " Ive v.a) lo a ne . . "' k l ce which can come A complete trausf urmat1on must t::i. e P a , nnh· as the result of a social re\·ol utwn. d . . · L d 1 · order tu u a\, a~ \Vhat basic change must e pro uccl m . · . ._ b " 0 . I , ·) C·ip1tali~m 1,, a_e with wa o-e-sla,·erv. unemp nym ent. \\ iH · ' . . l d , .. . ,f h" f· torie!I ra1}rc>cll1::o, an upo11 the private 01, 111'r,;h1p o mac mes, .ic , . _ . 'fh n'- nf product inn a1 e and a ll ntlier means of productw n. e men . · I · 1· ·t" The <crcate51 pnu· in the han ds of a small class, tie capita i:, - · , c. · \l ' llions 1 · · 1· · t ·c1 Jerty and pwut. · 1 <:1ples of capita 1,;111 are pn,·a e P • •. f l'f B t thesr I of workers produce to!!elher the 11eccss1t1es O e. u l. . .. . . f I " vho own the mac unei;, neccss1t1es bi>come the proper!~ 0 110 -e ' . mone , with the land. etc.. while the workers do not h a,e th e ff ) C ]. · C . .. of people su er. 0 which to buy thrm. n ;;es occu r, masSt.::, . f fit. . 1·1s I po,\.e r "· m a race or pro on ies arc seized bY Ihe 1:ap1tn and b ooty Capital'i:-m (Yivcs birth to war. . f Onlv o~1e thin!! can <lo away wi th the ha~is for the ex 1hs tence o . . , . . f h . ·1 J' st" Take t e means capitalism : the expropnallon o I <' cap1 a J • - · l l d f the s o l em, Pl ace theni 111 t 1e 1an of production awaY f rom 11 h d of workers who will .produce, not for profit, hut f~r t eh_~eeh~noe · m · a. pos1' tion to hnn" c " hv csociety. The working c Iai;s is d o t '"c,rted about. It alone, by its own org~mzed eff orlt~ a;nd chang~, the rest of the oppressed population, can rea Y . h Y • • • h' h r. This C anue IS Ill transform the system under w JC we I\~- b , itali«°m itself. evitable. The workers are dri\'rn towards 11 Y cap - ~~!f 27 �But an attempt to brino- ab t h b . rnedialt>l ,. meet th" ? . ou sue a as1c change would im' oppos1t10n of the c api't a 1·i:,,ts . an d tI1eir . :,tale ~ . owE>r Th" · ..:t P · b J ate power consistc; t l Of h . ernment but of th h - no on Y t e bodws of 0uov' e army, t e police th Pxpropriate the cap1'tal1' st·~ th e wor k·e rs, fi. e t courts. InJ' order to d existina o-ovE>niiii~iit m 1 . d rs nee to 1sca rd the ot-> , ae1:11eryan t - · · · /!11,·e rnme11t. Sud1 a r~·.- l t' o rnsl1tute a workmg class . ~·o u ion was '-Ul'l'e ·sf 11 . d h h · 191-, 111 Ruc.-.iJ 1 d h l · · · · s- u Y• carne t rouo-0 , .un er t e ea cl ers h ip --.. . . 11 I o1 the Communist Party. Th S h . . 15 1::- t ie basi c char , from wa.re-slaver)· ·111d fige. uc a r_evolut1on frees the work&s .., ' rom opprC'sc.10n b th . 1· worker,; are in powe r Th . k ,· Y e capita 1sts. The . · c "or er" OO'ovr.r t effort of the ('" Jn ·it ·il ·, .· . t · ·h · nmen suppresses every • ' r ' ~.,,. o restore t e old " t U . workers rrovernmt'lll ·h' h --YS em. nder this new c• ..., I C cru·uanlee th 'd d the masses the bui!J' fc- . . . s e w1 est emocracy for 111 /!." o socialism beo-· . ' 0 I h . . possible to have --ocia I l . oms. n Y t en 1s 1t masses. lo abolish ~nf'm iio an~mg to fill_ the needs of all the But . d I ) mt nt, to abolish war for profit m or er to accomp lish th I • . tlw workers neecJ th . . feh revo ut1on and to def Pnd it t ::, upport o t e O th I . d the population Whi'l, th k er exp oite !'f'ctions of · < <' wor ·prs ar · · · and lead such a rc\·nlution th e m a ~os1t10n to organize selves. They ha vP all. . . hey cannot ~arry it through by them1. The m . f ies m t, e population. These allies are: as::, o µoor and sm ·d I f· h by big busine,-,-, the true. " , ,1r~ers, w o are oppressed th<' middle cla---- in th . L: ~he monopolies and the bankers; also t' c 1t1e~, c.uc li as th t h . . h . .. fess1onals c.mall bu· . · e PC mc1cms, t e pro. ., · ~111c~:-men et -h . italism and who have t' ti: c., ..., _o art' suffering from cap· 2 Th \ E'r~ 1111 i! to ~nm under socialism · e oppn-',-,-pd :\P~ro pPople. · . ~- ~he oppre,;~Pd 1woµ les of th 1\ .·. . Phil1ppme Island-. r 1 · l ~ thmri 1cm colo111es-the ' . • \. U ,a, l'tc- ·in< of ~ dC who are undn the dumin · t· ·· ' f h · ou_ an entrnl America Among the . a ion " t_ l' capitali st,- of thP l '.S. most ,.mportant al h es 1if· I k. • t ze u:or ·mg class is the Negro peoplP. ;,, the , _, -, d S . ·· (. m e tares Th 1._ f t d · tht' 1 . f · - ac etermmes the re1atrn11 hetwef'n \\n aspectc. o tlw . . I · . . oµi11 :l· i11 thi~ countn· · lt'\o utiun wl11ch is devel- The Combination of Two Revolutions The rl'rnlutio11 for L11cl an<l frt'ed . prolet~rian rernlutiou in tlw countn o~n _m the :,ou!.h and the hand -in hanJ E·irl ·11 1 _) . s a v,hole will J ew lup . . .· . ' 1 w1 Pnn ~trl' ll)/."th ;ind h 1 he wo1k111g da;;~- - both \d 1i· tu' ,·111<1 "\l')!ru --will support t e other. lt'adtolwth. 28 How does it come about that the white workers not only will, but must lend their support to the struggle for Negro liberation? First of all , because the workers will not be able to overthrow capitalism unless they have the help of the Negro people. This is why we say that it is inevitable that the white workers, even the Southern white workers, fight for Negro freedom and s_upport the struggle of the Negro people. They will do so necause it is necessary for their own victory. The Southern white workers especially will ; upport the Negroes in their struggle. For in the South the power of the landlords and capitalists is threatened most of all in the Black Belt. Here the class struggle is very sharp. This is the weakest front of capitalism. Just imagine what consternation will seize hold of the ruling class of the country when the struggle in the plan· tation country reaches the stage of revolution! The revolution which breaks out here micrht indeed be thE' spark for the proletarian revolution through0out the country. The white workers will understand that the struggle of the Negro people for freedom weakens the power of their own oppressors, the capitalists. Between the proletarian revolution and the revolution of the Negro people for land and freedom there is a living link. This is the working class. It is among the workers that solidarity first develops and is the strongest. In the cities and towns of the ~outh and in the big industrial centers of the North this solidaritv between white and Negro l abor is forged. Here reposes the le..idership of the two aspects of the revolution . But there also must be present a conscious organized group .)f workers, which realizes the necessity of revolution and which the masses in their daily· struo-o-les towards this end. This lea<ls , 00 l 1s the role of the Communist Party. Communists do not on Y talk about the future revolution , but are active fighters for the daily interests of the masses. In unions and other working class organizations, in strikes, in demonstrations, in elections, we Communists endeavor, while playing a leading part in the strug· gles of the masses, to convince them of the correct, revolutionary way out. And one of our principal lines of activity has always been to develop now the solidarity of the white workers and Negro masses, to build this alliance in our daily life and struggles, to assure the combination of the two a!:'pects of th1i1 American revolution. 29 �In. building this class solidarity there is a division of labor, but wit~ a common aim, between the white and Negro workers. The "'.hi~e worke~s must realize that the main responsibility for estabhshmg working class unity rests upon their shoulders. They mu~t lead the fight against race prejudice in the ranks of the white masses. They must remember that for centuries the Nearo people have ~een oppres~ed by white nations. Among the Ne;ro masses there _1s ~ deep distrust of all whites. The plantation sys-' tern and capitalism have created this distrust and it cannot be d~n~ aw~y with merely in words. Race prejudice pollutes the air m this country. After having been excluded from a number of _labor uni~ns, having been ostracized by many sections of whites, _there 1s no reason for Negroes to believe in words only. They can ?nly be convinced by action. If they see larger number. of white workers actually fighting for Negro rights fiahting against race prejudice, insisting upon equal treatment in laces for Negroes, t?en they w~ll have cause to rely upon the white workers as the~r ~Uy. This is the only way this distrust can be overcom~. Thi~ _is why the Communists, especially the white Commumsts~ vi_gilantly guard their Party against the :.nfluence of race pre~udice. No white worker is deserving of the name of Commu~ist u~less he constantly carries on a struggle against every mamfestation of ~ace prejudice among the workers. . The Negro w~rkers, m order to achieve working class solidarity, ~~ve the ~hie! t,!sk of fighting against "black patriotism" ~d r~ce s~hdanty . They must constantly fight against the 1 eas O sue people as Dr. DuBois for, as we have seen they strengthen the Negro's distrust of the wh"t h h . 1 e work ers. N 0 N' egro as t e ng~t to call himself a Communist unless he fi hts con· stantlf agamst the Negro "race" leaders, unless he i~ always ex~osmg the role of those who call for separation between white an Negro, unless he is constantly explaining the unity of interests of. the. Negro masSt:s and of the work"mg c l ass. The Negro C omm~mst IS first an~ foremost the exponent of the proletarian revolution, for he realizes that this alone will guarantee not only freedom for the Negro but also emancipation of all toilers. ll How Will the Question of Self-Determination Be Settled? . The Communists fight for the right of the Black Belt territory to self-determination. This means not only that the Negro people shall no longer be oppressed but shall come into their 30 rightful position as the majority of the population in t~e Black Belt. It means e uallv the ri!!ht of the Black Belt re ubhc freely to determine its relations to t e ·nited States. One cannot tell in advance under what circumstances the question of the riaht of self-determination for the i\egro people in the Black Bel~ will arise for definite sul ution . There are . two distinct pu:,sibilities. first: The re.volution in the plantation country might mature sooner than the proletarian re\·olution in the country a::- a whole. This is a possibility because of the fact that capitalism is weakeSt in the South and the enslaved Negro masses on the land are a revolutionary force of great power. It is certain. howe\·er, that the revolution in the plantation country cannot come to a hea_d and press for victory unless capitalism throughout the count~~ I!' in difficulties, already being threatened seriou!;ly by _the nsmg Working-class movement. In this situation the rebellion of th e Negro people would give new strength to and hasten the pro~etarian revolution. The working class, led by the CommumSl Party, would come to the aid of the masses in the South to prevent the capitalist ruling da::;s of the North from suppressing the revolution in the Black Belt. Cnder these circumstances the C~mrnunists in the Black Belt would favor, and would do everythmg in their power to win the laboring people uf the Black Belt ~o fa\'or complete i11depe11dt'1!,'t" from the capit •li,-t-rulecl repubhc of the North. For complC'te independence of the Black Belt re· giou would then mt>an greater freedom for the ~egroes and a serious weakeninu- of the power of capitalism in the country as a whole. All Cu~1munists would defend the rig.ht of the Negro people to make their choice. . r Second: The proletarian revolution may overthrow capita ism and establish a So,iet Government for the country as a whole before the revolution comes to a head in the Black Belt. However it must be kept in mind that the two phases of the revolu· tion will no1 develop separately. Thus, while the_ worker~ are leadina the onslau<Tht anainst capitalism, the revolutionary seizure o e t th same O of the plantation land and large-scale farms may a e timt> he proceeding in the South. But once the workers come to power in the United States the rernlution for land and freedom will be hastened and completed. One of the first steps of the - .. ·11 l- t t the riaht of self· 11" o gran e centra I !'iov1et go\'nnment w1 elermmat10n to the Negro peop e in t e ac · Be t. - ---·- - 31 �h the workers and peasants troops of the foreign powers and w ere S · li'st Soviet gov· . esta bl'1sh'mg autonomous f ocia had succeeded ID d ated themselves · nts at once e er ernments, these S oviet gove:rnme . Onl as the revolution to the central Russian Sov~et Republic.the c:unter-revol utionary developed in the other regions and as S . t vernments estab· intervention armies were defeated, were ovife got 1 Russia gave . th h th k'ng class o cen ra 1ished f th outlying regions there. Al oug e wor i 1 direct aid to the struggle of ~e peop eths O e ter -revolutionists, . th . t· arnnes and e coun . agamst e mterven ion "th the other Soviet none of these regions was forced to fe~er~te w;f the Soviet Union Republics. To this very day, the c?nst~tution all the nations at permits the right of self-determmation to This would mean that thr :'.e;!r<> peopl e in the Black Belt will have the ri ght to choosr for them!-elves Lrlwt>rn fr.deration wi.th or srparation from tht · l" nit r d States as a whole. The S onet Power, the workt>r;; and their µ:ove.rnm ent. will µ:uarante e thi,right : First, becau,-e tlwre will be no reason for th e forcihlf' anne xation of the l\egro Republic. With the o\·erthrow of capitalism, the basis of all exploitation will ha\e been eliminated, thesebv al,-o thP. ba,-is for th f' exploitation and oppression of th e ~e~ro · people. SPrn11d. the fr ee union of p,..oples on the basi,- of equality is possible only through free choice arrived at by tlw majori ty of the people. The very fa ct that the victorious workin g clas!'- and its Soviet l!overnmrnt would guar;-intce compl ete anrl unlimi tPcl freedom of choice would in it!'-e lf he a guaranlt•t> of freedom in thr full sen!'-e of the word. Undt>r sur h cirr um sta111 ·1•,th e Negro Comrnuni !-ts would urg1• and fight for frdrration with the Sovi et republic of the Vnited States, for this course would bP to the best intere:sts of the Negro peopl e and all workers. 111 th e event , how1· v1:r, that th e choice is aµ: ain st federation-the Communi st Party and the Soviet gon•rn1111·nt would respect th,. will of the Nr g ro pcnplr. I n st;i ti11 0 our po~iti on on thi s q11e~ tio11, " a rr ;ruidcd no t only by tlw th r orf'li cal prin ciplrs of the Communi ~t Part y hut a lso hy th r actua l n w ri Pm:c of th f' Ru!-~ian Hl·voluti on. Hure a num hrr of rl n 1: lop n· ·11ts in th r solution of the qu Pstion ot' sclfdd rr rni11 ati 1,n 11<T11r1 I sirnult.111 Pou,- ly. Tlie Cn·at Hu ss ian s. whnsl' ruli n;.r da ,-!" op1,ri · •I the oth er l"l'l r !- within the Tsa rist 1-:mp irr , 1:orn pri!-ecl onl y ·d ,nut 1-5 Jlt' r i;e nt of the population uf tlw old Hus;; ia. Uoth d urin l[ th e• fir st rev1-lutio11 in ;\for!'h, 1917. whr n th P Tsa r wa s ov,·rtl ir o \111 , a nd rlur in;_! the sr l'ond n •vo lu tion of i\ mPmLrr. l ') I , . whr n tlw po wer of th e r·a pitali --t,- ,11111 larnl ow rwr;; wa,- de!- troy,:d and th e Sn\·il'l Gm·prr, mPnt ""L1hl i,- lwd. ·th,· workns had th r support of t hr p1 •a;; a11l !- not nn h · i 11 1·1·111 ra I Hu ~sia hu t also in ·a n uml wr of ou th·inµ: rPgio 11s wlw n· tlw oppn·;;srd nat iona l J>P" fll P l i,·1·1I. llu t tlw rt · \ olut io n di d IH•t rlr·\·d op 1•\·r nl v 1·\·1·n wh,·rr . 1 · nde r thr,-c· r· irn1rn!-la11 rrs. h o w w ;1,th<' '.lu<·!'ti on of sl' lf-d,·tPrmi nation ;;1·1Ll1•rl 't T he fi r~t act 1,f ll w Sovi Pt Co V('l'IIJn f' ll t wa ,- I n i,;stw a d, ·n, ·1· µ-rant ing thl'. ri ght of ~1·lf-d1·tn rni11 ation I n all till' nati ou -- of tl w fo rm<' r Hu ,-~ ian 1·mp irc a11rl full 1·1pial r i;r ht~ within th,• F,·dn al1 ·d Sovif't H1•p11 J.li es. 111 th11~p rt';_!11111,- whi('h wr· r,• not 111·1·11pi1·d ln~2 present in the Union. ts In some regions the There were also other developmenf · . ry leaders who . d h . ft ence o reactiona people were still un er .t e ID u Either the proletarian revoWere supported by foreign powers. . t yet strong enough lution was suppressed or the proletariat was n? 1 aders to cafry . . h nor mdependent enough f rom the bourgeois e Finland wh1c . . Such a case was ' through the revolution to victory. E . Towards the end at one time was a part of the Russiand ms;redomination of the of the World War Finland came F~ .e~ ~ing class sup pressed German Army' with wh~se aid the IDn~sher an indep endent ~ethe proletarian revolution and estabhs . ts Did the Soviet public under the domination of the cathpitaUis . . of Soviet Re. . I d ·nto e ruon Government try to force f 1D an i h . of the Council · 8 the c airman Le publics? On the contrary, nm, a . R bl · himself per· of People's Commissars of the So~et ~~nish Republic sonally acknowledged to a representat~ve o i:m official sanction the right of that countr y to secede an gave r tt to do so. h S lny " said Lenin " I very well remember the scene at t echa:~r t~ Svinkhovod, l ater " when it fell to my lot to grant th~ . who had played the . h bourgeome ' . of th e r·mnis the representauve h d and we pal"d each part of hangman. He amiably shook w': I But it had to be other complimente. Ho~ unth pleabant eoisie falsely persu.aded the done because at that ume e o~rg that the MoecoVlteB . wer:; ted to crush the Finns. people, the toiling masses, to bel_1eve chauvinists and that ·t he Great Russians wan h F' s the th~ d t anted t e mn And if the Soviet Government ha ~o ~ force this would right to secede and attempted to keep t em y uld h' ave looked F · · h masses wo have meant annexation. Th e mms . sor no better than upon the Soviet Government as a foreign oppres ' • 33 \~ �· Tsari!ID. Today, the Finns are under the hard and brutal reac· tionary dictatorship of the Finnish bourgeoieie, but there will be no doubt that once they have overthrown this bourgeoisie there will be no hesitation to federate with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Government and the Communist Party recognized the rights of all the nations which had formerly been oppressed by Tsardom. The Soviet Union is composed of more than 100 different nations and national minorities. The oppression of these nations is now impossible because the masses of that nation which formerly oppressed them have overthrown the bourgeoisie and the landlords and are building socialism. These numerous nations live in complete harmony with each other. They have received direct aid from the Great Russians in building their industry, improving their agriculture and achieving complete economic equality with the other peoples of the Soviet Union. The proletarian revolution first wiped out the basis of national oppression. Then it began rapidly to lay the basis of equality. For many of these formerly oppressed peoples had been retarded and held back by Tsardom. It was necessary to carry through the development of industry and agriculture in the regions where the formerly oppressed nations lived, at even a quicker pace than in Central Russia. We have witnessed here the most rapid development of peoples that all of history can show. Nomadic peop led were lifted out of their backwardness, almost overnight devtl 01-,ed into an industrial and modern agricultural people without h~ ring to go through the stage of capitalism. Cultural development is equally swift. The basis for inequality is rapidly disappearing even in most backward areas. The S'lviet Union has proved the correctness of the Communist program. If in the former "prison of nations", where the question of national liberation and of national prejudices is very much more complicated than in the United States, such signal success has been achieved, can there be any doubt about the realization of equal and even greater success here? The Revolutionary Wey We have seen that only a basic change can guarantee to the Negro the possibility for a decent livelihood, the rights of human beings and an equal, honorable and respected status in all public and social life. The ruling class will not permit such a change. 34 in order to The masses of exploited must ~erefore orgamze rnake use of their right to revolution. h · It is forced Lt f our own c oosmg. Revolution is not a ma er O • d grinds us down upon us by capitalism itself, which degra e; us, exploitation into the dust makes life unbearable. As ong las . ' . d th have been revo ut10ns. ere f human and oppression have existe The revolutionary way has al":ays beehn the u7::f 0 a revolu· . to bemg as t e res . r progress. Cap1ta ism came m bT . Europe. Socialism 1 1 tion against feudalism ~nd the no 1t{ 0 a revolution against came into bt>ing in Russia as the rehsu b" h nd progress of the capitalism. Revolution has marked l _e 1~1 a '"•ary to remove . N 1 voluuon is nece ... li mted States. ow anot ter re f h rogress. But the d ke way for urt er P f . d a ecaymg system an ~a h ther revolutions o 11 0 a new exploiting proletarian revolution differs _from a It hi~ory. All previous revolutions resu _!e ~~e majority of the class coming into power a nd suppres:--lm~ the maJ· ority coming · re,o . lution. .resu ts. m 't . and removmg . the people. Th e pro l etanan into poweT, suppressing the explo1tmg_mmoOn )I then is the poa· n v·., Society, orp;an· · · b11sis of all explo1tat1on an d °ppress1on. . aII cl as;;e. .. · · with · d sibility created for omg 3 " ay . the Sol"iali,at :oystemi1.ed in a new social and eco_n~>m•cf.,,.Y l .sfte~~ bundanee. 1.:an now prov1"de t he nee t' ~·situ•-.•· o I e III a th 'legro been !'tranp;e to e . The revolutionary way has noll . . "tru.,o-les ha\'e glor· , 1 • d St tes He,·o ut1onar y . ,-o I8 µ,•nple in th e L mte ~ a · h courageous strutz!! e itiecl their history. Ha\"e w~ forg143.215.248.55: tt e aaainsl thr sla\"e mer· nf ihr African peoples for ltfe an . 1 er Y1 ~ ? Even the few d h Amencan r o on1es. ·f d1ant;, of Europe an I e d . written history tesll Y inc iden ts which have been presPrv~ Ill ·1gainst Pnslavement find inspiration lo the determined struggle of the egroels • . . The Negro peop e can N t from the very b egmnmg. G b . I Denmark Vesey, a in the revolutionar y attt'mpts of . ah n~ '. the numerous slave 111 Turner and unt o11l tIwu:-,rn Js of h"!' ter,,, h der"round ra1·1 roa d · 1 • l '-It tes and m t e un e l revo lts in the mtel ~ a ' ' l t" nary war of t h e Ame r· 10 · · ted in the revo u Many Negroes partic1pa .. he Civil War itself was a re vo• icun colonies against the Bntish. T h ..,ero ypsterclay chatti>l • a -those W O " " • lution •m which the ,'"eeroes . slaves !-fouaht for land and hherty. I mbattlt>d NeJi;ro 0 c· ·1 w decade when t lt' e • . f That glorious "I ar_ . bloodhounds of reacuon or fought with gun in hand agamsft lthe cl . todav an heroic, revolu• the riahts of citizenship and o un is . " 35 t J. �fore be faced with the need of obliterating this inequality which it will have inherited from capitalism. The fundamental policy of a Soviet Government with regard to the Negro generally would therefore be to create even relatively greater opportunities for advance and progress for the Negro than for the white. Special emphasis would be placed upon training more Negro skilled workers, upon technical and other forms of education, upon inducing larger numbers to take up engineering, science, etc. The technical schools, colleges and universities, most of which are today either out of the reach of or closed to Negroes, would be placed at the disposal of Negroes even to a proportion· ately greater degree than of the rest of the population. This is the only way that special privileges for the whites can be done away with. A Soviet Government must confer greater benefits upon the Negroes than upon the whites, for the Negroes have started witn less. This is the real test of equality. This is the only way that the basis for real equality can be established. Any act of discrimination or of prejudice against a Negro will become a crime under the revolutionary law. The baais of race prejudice and oppression will no longer exist because cap· italimi will no longer exist. But it would be entirely Utopian to believe that the day after the revolution all prejudice will disappear. Capitalism will leave some of it behind like a stench, just like it will leave behind other capitalist ideSB and preju· dicee. But these will be systematically fought by the Soviet Government and the Communist Party until they are extinguished. Then it will no longer be a question of wiping out !he basis for such prejudices, but of merely obliterating the remnants. Social· ism will remake man. To the first generation of new Soviet Americans race prejudice and discrimination will appear like a horrible disease of a past age. In affairs of State, in the political activities of the country, in management, in all phases of public life, with the removal of all discriminations, the Negro will be playing a prominent part, just as Georgians, Tadjiks, Ukrainians, etc., are today among the leaders of the Soviet Union and its Communist Party. The horrors of segregated, over-crowded ghettoes will disappear. All residential sections of the city will be opened to the Negro. There will be no segregated areas. If Negroes wish to remain in Harlem, for instance, they will be perfectly free to S8 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document PLEASE NOTE have reprinted chis booklet by offset from a similar reprint made from the original, in 194 5, by The National Economic Council. Additional copies are available from us at the following prices: In lots of I to 99, at three for one dollar; I 00 to 999, at twenty-five cents each; I 000 or more, at twenty cents each. Order from \'(le .. l AM E RICAN OPINION Belmont, Massachusetts 02178 �FOREWORD T HE world is caught in the depths of a great crisis. Masses of people live on the brink of starvation. Discontent and un· rest are more widespread than ever before. Changes are taking place in society and in government. Intensive preparations for war and movements towards fascism are developing quickly. These are times of great changes and of quick transformations. The old ideas, upon which generations of people have been raised, are crumbling because life no longer justifies them. New ideas take their place. People in all walks of life are seeking new solutions, an effective way out of present conditions. What is the relation of the Negroes in the United States to this rapidly changing world? They are now living through one of the most trying times in their history. What is the way out? This question presents itself more sharply to the Negro masses than to any other section of the population. It is our purpose in this pamphlet to answer this question, We believe we express the minimum desires of the Negro masses when we say that they want at least: 1. A decent and secure livelihood; 2. The rights of human beings; 3. An equal, honorable and respected status in all public and social life. Capitalism has not been able to provide these needs, and is less and less able to do so. There are those who sav that by re· forming capitalism it can be made to fi II the neerls o'f the mas5es. We will show why this is impossible. There i-s only one real, effective way out for the masses. It is not an easy one. But no basic change in society is easy. This wa~ leads to a Soviet America. This is the only realistic vision freedom possible today. It must be achil'ved, it can be achie,·eh · • t e How? We will first show the basis of Negro slavl'TY 10 • g United States today. We will then show how all Levents are push•~e towards another revolution in the United StatP!I and wha t r;rY the Negro people will play in this revolution. We will then ·ble to describe the tremendous vista of freedom and advance pMs• in a Soviet America. THE NEGROES . in a SOVIET AMERICA by James W. Ford and James S. Allen d 2 P. PUBLISHED BY WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS BOX 148, STA. D, NEW YORK CITY, JUNE, 1935 o. �The Negroes in a Soviet America By JAMES W. FORD and JAMES S. ALLEN I. THE NEGRO IN CAPITALIST AMERICA BOOKER T. Washington once said: "No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized." He thought that capitalism would permit the Negro to develop business and manufacturing, and increase his ownership of land. In this way, he believed, the Negro could achieve an important economic place in the capitalist world. His whole philosophy was based upon this belief. "Agitation for social equality," he said, "would be extreme folly." Let each Negro train himself in industrial pursuits or in business, hew a place for himself in capitalist America, and only then will he be treated with respect, was his advice. But what has this wisdom led to? Economic "Progress" Let us first consider the question of landownership. During the Civil War and immediately after, the Negroes thought that taey would obtain the land-"forty acres and a mule." But nothing of the kind happened. Only very slowly and with much difficulty was it possible for some to purchase land. By 1910 only one-fourth of all Negro farmers owned some land, usually very little, the poorest and most heavily mortgaged. But for the last 25 years, capitalism has been taking even this land away from Negro farmers. In 1930 there were 40,000 less Negro farm owners tha..--. in 1910. In ten years, between 1920 and 1930, Negroes lost almost 2,000,000 acres of land. How much they have lost in the last five years, no one knows. But it is certain that land is being taken away now from Negro owners by banks, insurance companies, large landowners and other creditors, much more rapidly than before. On the other hand, the most brutal form of slavery in the country has been growing rapidly. The Negroes are the prin• cipal victims of this slavery. It is share~ropping and planta• a �tion tenancy. Everyone knows that when chattel slavery was abolished the plantations remained. Most of the Negroes became share-croppers and tenants on these plantations. They were actually prisoners, almost chattel slaves. Almost three-quarters of a century has passed since Emancipation. Has capitalism done anything to abolish this new slavery? . On the contrary! The plantation country to this day is like a prison, a veritable hell to which 5,000,000 Negroes have been consigned without any prospect of immediate escape. In fact, the slavery has even increased. In the cotton plantation area of the South, twenty-five years ago, 80 per cent of all the Negro farmers were croppers and tenants. But in 1930 their number had grown to almost 84 per cent. There are those who say that President Roosevelt and the "New Deal" are changing this situation. But it is clear to every Negro in the plantation country that Roosevelt has been helping only the bigplanters. His policies have resulted in increased slavery. When the crisis broke out in this country the large landowners in the South found themsel ws in a qu:m,-bry. Many of the banks and credit merchants failed and those who remained refused to extend credit. Many of the small landowners, who lived from hand to mouth, were wiped out. From the beginning of the crisis to March, 1933, over a half-million forced sales and foreclosures took place in the Southern states. Roosevelt came to the rescue of the large landowners by . pumping tremendous funds into the South, most of which went to the modern slave-master - the plantation owner. In nine months alone the Farm Credit Administration advanced about S300,000,000 directly to the planters. In this way, Roosevelt helped to holster up the plantation, on which millions of Negroes are enslaved. The Federal Government took over many of the debts from private banks ::md insurance companies and is now the biggest holder of mortgages in the South. This means that it now has a direct hand in maintaining the plantation slavery, that it is part owner, together with the big planter, of a vast prison country. The second step taken by Roosevelt was to increase the profits of the large landowners and the commission merchants by reducing acreage in the South. In 1933, while millions of people were in need of clothing, we were faced with the astounding 4 picture of ripe cotton being plowed under by poorly clothed fa~~ workers. The croppers and tenants never saw the money ~hie they were supposed to receive from the Governme~t for this act of destruction. The plantation master:;, the credit merchants, the ba11kc-rs, got the government checks. Thi,- i,- what a ~overnment farm agent in Mississippi said: "You know the government in Washi111-(t1Jn caused m,· a litt/e trouble here 0Bv mfstake they mailed sumc of the rhecks t: out to 'niirg~r' cruppers. They proLaLly didn't know wh~1. t 1e~ were d(1ing when they did it. Imagine givin:; a check ~o j nc1fg':r cropper! Of cour~e, I turned these checks nv~r to t anb '( 5 anyhow. They'll have lo gel the croppers ,to endorse_,t em c ore th<'y take tht'm to 1lie hank. llut that wont bP. hare!. '"j' h Acrea~e was cur again in 1934 under t~e Bankh: a1 Bil\ It is being cut again in 19:{5 as a result of a · democratic election in which the plant:ilion owners forced the Negro croppers and tenants to vote for reduction. . . This is not only a lfocimation of crops; it is also a decunation of hundrnds of thousands of human beings. Whole tenant f ~milies are being sf-'nt "dow11 the road" by the ~lante~s, or ~re be~ng permitted to eke out a miserable existence m their cabms domg forced labor for the government or the planter in return for S?I_'1e crumbs called relief. These landless and workless far1? families are beina "kept on hand" to be fo rced to work at plowmg, chop· · · ping or "cotton picking at staryall~n wages. Wages on most plan. tations are now between 25 and :>U cents a day. . Roosevelt's policies have had the effect of mcreasmg the slavery of millions of Negro toilers in the South. Cotton, the need of millions of unclothed, a necessity of mankind, has been turned into the mark of Negro slavery by capitalism. The Promise of the City It 1-eemPd to man\' people, especially durin~ the Wo~l d War and the years immed.iately following, that city life and mdustry would offer a means of escape from slavery 011 the land. The city and its industry had been practically forbidden ter• ritory for Negroes up to the World War. In the first place, the plantation masters and government agencies of the Bla~k Belt kept the Nearoes chained to the land and would not permit them to leave. E:en when industry began to develop in the South, the factory gates remained closed to Negro workers. Hope was 5 �dimmed when the textile industry, which grew so rapidly in the South, made it clear that it would not hire Negroes. The place of the- Negro, it was said, was on the plantation; their slave labor Willi needed there. Even to this day, the textile mills do not have any Negro workers at the machines. But during the World War a great shortage of labor existed in industry. Then only did the capitalists make an energetic drive to obtain Negro labor. Who does not remember the great hope of the exodus? It was compared to the Emancipation Act. The South was the land of the Pharaohs, the North "the Land of Promise". The Red Sea of capitalism was opening up to permit the Negroes to pass. But the exodus was already petering out in 1923. Employers bad more labor than they needed. The Red Sea aKain flowed back into its normal course. Almost twenty years have gone by since the mass migration ltarted. Years before, Negroes, in smaller numbers, had been m gaged in industrial pursuits. Yet it is a well-known fact that Negro workers have not been permitted to advance to the higherpaying jobs. They have been forced to the lowest status of all industrial workers, to the unskilled, heavy-laboring jobs. Today, no more than 10 per cent of all the Negro workers have held skilled or semi-skilled jobs. It is not because they cannot be skilled workers. Many of them are. It was a common occurrence in the South, ~ven h:fore the _present crisis, to find graduates of Tuskegee Institute, highly tramed mechanics and teachers work· ing as bell-hoy~ . in the hotels. But capitalism has not gi~en the same opportunities to the Negroes for advancement and training as it had given to white workers. The white workers, it is true, are wage-slaves under capitalism. They must sell their labo_r ~o an employer in order to live. They, also, are exploited. But it 1s clear to everybody that the Negro wage-worker is exploited even m~re. He is held back to the lowest level of the wage-workers, he Ill pushed back by capitalism every time be advances. Under President Roosevelt's "New Deal" this state of affairs has ~n officially recognized and given a legal status. The Industrial Codes have placed the official stamp of the Federal Government upon the double standard. The differential wage established by these Codes said in effect that the wages of Negro workers must remain lower than those of white workers. One 6 example will show how this works. The Code for the lumber in· dustry pla~ed the minimum wage for the North at 42½ cents an hour, and for the South, where most of the lumber workers are Negroes, at 24 cents an hour. Now capitalism is trying to evict the Negro workers from industry for good. Today there is an army of at least 15,000,000 unemployed in the United States. Among the Negro workers unemployment is many times greater than among white workers. The number of Negroes in families on relief increased from 2,117,000 in October, 1933, to 3,500,000 in January, 1935. In many place!! even jobs which were always held by Negroes are being given to white workers at the same or even lower wages. Nor has the Negro fared any better in the professions. Here again capitalism has held back with a heavy hand all efforts at advancement. In the whole country there are only 6,781 Negro physicians, lawyers and dentists. They_ also have_ been victims ~f segregation and discrimination, suffermg from madequate fac_1lities in the way of training and practice, and excluded from white institutions. Many of them are starving today. For a population of 12,000,000 Negroes there are only 50,000 Negro teachers, most of whom are not permitted to teach in white schools. The yearly salary of most of these teacher!' does not exceed $300. Push ahead in business, was another advice of Booker T. Washington. One is even met with this advice on all sides today. But even the development of a large Negro middle class has proven to be impossible under capitalism. In the whole country today, there are only about 25,000 retail stores operated by Negro proprietors. Most of these are small, overnight, "peddler" affairs. Why? Not because the Negro is not capable, but because big business has the monopoly of commerce and trade. Segrega· tion forces the Negro retailer to sell only in Negro neighborhoods. He has a poor clientele. He has no chance against the chain store. Today, many small business men are being wiped out. A small, well-to-do class, however, has tleveloped among the Negro people. The Negroes also have a millionaire or two. But this class has developed only at the expense of the rest of the Negro community. It gathers for itself a goodly share of the profits arising from the exploitation of the Negro masses. It is true that capitalism has not permitted the existence of any large Negro-owned industrial enterprises. The white ruling class is 7 �~he direct exploiter of the Negro masses on the plantations and in mdus!ry. But the Negro upper class has found a11other way to exploit the Negro masses. These were the words with h' h Th . omu:- Knicrht. Jr., chief . · W IC 0 prosecutor m the Srotbhoro C f I d · th d . use, re errc, lo Hevwood Putterso11 ur!ng e secon tnal at Decatur, Alubamu. . These words express the t . towards Ne roes wh' h ~on_ emptuous und msulting attitude in his I ~ h' . JC capitalism hreuthm•. "Keep the Negro S . I P ~ce :-t is Is the Watchword of the modern slave driver. 0 cia foshraci sm, persecution, segregation, insult have taken the • 1 p ace o t e s1aveowner's p t r d . . a erna ism un of Simon Legree's whip. Th f h" d" . . . e acts of J1m-Crowism I 11 k • ync mg, 1scnmmallon are so ~enera y nown a nd are 80 deeply branded in the heart of the egro masses that we need not go into detail here. Suffice it to say that the rulers of this country, especially and most openly in the South, have made the Negro a social outcast, have treated him not like a human being hut like cattle. They have gone to the greatest pains to brand the Negroes with the mark of non· humans. On street cars, trains, in railroad stations and places of amusement, on drinking fountains, the ruling class of the South has broadcast to the world: "Only whites here-only Negroes there!" In the North they do not use signs, but that is the only difference. There are written laws and there are unwritten laws. The three most important written laws with regard to Negroes are the 13th Hth and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of ' States. These are supposed to guarantee to .every the United Negro the full rights of citizenship and equality under the law. But these are only decorations on the Constitution. Negroe:; are not permitted to serve on juries in the South. A Negro voter in the South is either an object of a lynching party or a highly privileged character. Although such practices are supposed to he unconstitutional, has the Federal government, since the period immediately after the Civil War, ever done anything about it? These written laws are not enforced. But the written laws in 15 states segregating Nrgroes on public conveyances are very strictly enforced. There is one unwritten law which is also very severely en· forced. That is the law that lynchers of Negroes are not to he punished. What is the reason for this very severe persecution of the Negro masses? It is not to he found in any "natural hatred" of whites for Negroes. These acts of hatred and of persecution are caused by capitalism. First: The ruling class must use severe measures of oppression and persecution in order to keep the Negro peon on the plantation, in order to maintain that special slavery of the South. The capitalists also make use of the same measures to force the Negro to take the lowest place in industry. Second: The whole idea of the "superiority of the white race" and the practices of Jim-Crow are used to effect a severe separation of the white masses from the Negroes. Race prejudice grew out of the old chattel slave system. Then the slaveowners were afraid of a union of the oppressed "poor whites" with the Negro slaves. Capitalism has taken over this prejudice and uses it for 8 9 J_t makPs its profits l,y taking udvantag;c of St'"TP"atio11 and O the 1tlP·1s of "wh ·t , · · ·,, I ,., • I C superronty • f 0111! examiru;s a fist of the we~lthwst 1'Pgroes he will find that many of 'them have made their fortunes by specuht' er • l · . .. ' mi:, Ill rca estate m the !:-cgregateJ sec· ho~s 0 large cilles and by extnu:ting extremely hi"h rrnts from the,r lt·na11b . I Watt Terp· . 1111·11':1<,r1,11rP; . 1u h n F N Ncgm ·t · .,, tl11•· Nn•~ro ·" a,, Oscar DePnPst, etc. ) Others have bu'lt th · Ith · I · . · r up err wca rn t If! co,-met1c busuwss bv commercializinor ti . · I . f " J ·1 J " (M I , · ,.. 1r JC e,1 o w 11 e ac nme .C. J. Walker ()>cauty . · , Mrs ' · Ann·1c ;,)f . ·1· urn I,ee, A nl honv \ erton, etc.). Still others have ma<le the1· r· wea Ith 1n . th e 111. . . , !;Urnnce _and hanking business, closely ronnt.'clf'c) with n•al estate speculat10n and ( Anthony Overton, ,,. ,-- ('" S pau t·<l'111;.:. . A I landlorJism . etc. I. num H·r of Nc.,ro l)hvsicians ·ind . . . h 0 l d r · · ' mn11sters a\'e accum· I u ale small fortun,•s, nut in their pract1'ce hut . · I 1· ' in reu estute. Th ese peop (' l\'P 011 the body of tho t d N · T . " segrega c egro com· mun~ty. hey urc Ill fa\'ur of sep;regalion and oppose nil efforts to ~·1pe out SCgrt•gntio11. for it would mPan rlestrnyi11<r th I . .•. r their wealth. "' e M:-ls 0 ! It is clear, then, that C'Hpitalism has h1'nd~ d ti . " f h N · · ,.re· re «'.cu11om1c proi:,rcss o t c i egro pcu•Jl~ With the t' f h 11 1 I f . • excep 1011 o t e sma ayer o parasites, the Neµ:ro people are retarded h Id d wn vushed down to the lowest le l 1'h' . ' e o , · 7c: f . . ,ve · rs Is economic pro.,.r.css durlnl? · 1 years n cnp1tal1st freedom! ,., The "Stigma of Race" "That thing over thrre ! ·• �the same purpose. This will b ·1 d e c ear when one compares the oppression of the N earoes an of th F"I. . b perialism The r·1· c-_ e 1 ipmos y American im1 ipmos are also • d there is not as much . d" . an oppresse people. Yet pinos as against Nerr:reJuT~e m the 1:Jnited States against Filiof ocean prevent tho oFe~·1· . e reason is that about 5,000 miles e 1 1pmo masses fr · d . struggles in immediate t .h om carrymg on a1 1y con act wit the Am · 0 h ot er hand, the whites and Near . encan masses. n t 11e contact in the United St t O r°es come mto daily and constant or planter and engagi a ~s, 0 ten exploited by the same boss needs. The ruling classngh m chommf on struggles for their daily .. as t ere ore us"d d meth Leods to keep them apart. ,. extreme an severe t us now con~ider hr· n. d . The uhl" h- . ic } c ucat1011 and health p ic sc ool system is su d b . should remember that th N ppose to e open to all. We f e eO0 roes were · · II or starting a system of f hr prmc1pa y responsible mediately after the Civ"I ~e P\h1c education in the South imp ublic school system in :Uan a~ : first superintendents of the Toda th N . y out ern states were Negroes. y, e egro is the outcast of th bl. One million Negro child f h e pu 1c school system. ·1 oe · h ren o sc ool a II · More than a third f h N ' "' a re not m sc ool at the fi rst grade and tho tf e hegro pupi.ls never get beyond d b ourt s nev f ourth . In many sectionsreeof the I a va uce eyond the open only fo r two or th hp a nt~t1on country schools are M ree rnont s durmg the year . ore than half the population f . . . the state spends only $5 45 ° Mississippi is Negro. Yet "ld · a year fo r the d · f h ~ h I as compared with $45.34 for a . e uca~wn o t e Negro m Alabama it was $.i.'i7 , ·h. '. white p upil. In one connty Td . p 1. r ~ ite ch ild and $ l.5l per N rr o ay, many of the Ne"ro sch I et'>ro. 0 0 s have been closed down for lack of funds Ca it 1. .., . p a ism is !'acrificing the education of millions of children~ r The high disease and death rate reveal the severity of capital ist <' Is_ an:iong the Negro peop le instance, the death ra te f bxp oitatr_on. In Milwaukee, fo r · h · rum tu erculos1 N e1g t times as great as amon.r whites. . s among egroes was great as compared with N k C ' m Harlem three times as heart disease are twice ew or ity as a whole. Deaths from as great among Ne I n llf i, anhattan, where the Ne roe . groes as among whites. the total population aim -~ s 7nst1tute only 12 per cent of occurred among Neg;oes. os one- ourth of all infant deaths y 10 This high death and disease rate is due to the hard exploitation of Negroes, to lack of hospitals and of care, to the crowding of the segregated sections. In view of these appalling facts, knowing all the bitter details of our daily existence, is there any reason why we should permit capitalism to continue? The Reformers and the "Race Criers" There are still those who would have the Negro masses believe that capitalism can do better than it has in the past. These people range from out-and-out reactionaries to those who cover reactionary policies with radical drapings. Let us see what they have to say as to the way out. The Bootstrap Lifters There are still many followers of Booker T. Washington today who would have us lift ourselves up by our bootstraps, when many of us do not even have boots. But we have already seen, from 75 years of experience, that capitalism has permitted only very few to rise--at the expense of the rest of the people. Today, when the crisis is denying millions even the barest necessities of life, only a quack or an outand-out reactionary can give such counsel. But kind of agitation is still very strong. Pick up almost any Negro newspaper, listen to many of the "race leaders" and you will be advised to help build Negro business. This will solve all our problems, we are told. The executive secretary of the National Negro Business League tells us : " Business points the way to a breakdown of the barriers and handicaps which retard Negro progress." He, and many others, call upon the Negro masses to patronize Negro business, as the most effective means to protect themselves against persecution. How futile, how bankr upt is this advice! Everywhere the capitalists are cutting down p roduction, have closed factor ies, reduced cr ops. The big monopolies and trusts are getting greater control of manufacturing and of the market. Small businessmen ever ywhere are going b ankrupt. Even the largest Negro banks and insurance companies, the pride of the followers of Washington, h ave crashed: the two largest Negr o banks, the Binga State a nd the Douglass National; the "Capstone of Negrn business" --the National Benefit Life Insurance Company of Washington. this 11 �and others. The P. & H. Taxi Corporation of Harlt'm. t>mploying 750 workers, saw its last days during the crisis. The capitalist road of advance is now out of the question. The Negro upper class uses this argument in an attempt to win the Negro market. It has nothing in common with the real in· terests of the Negro masses. The Ballot and the Drawing Room In contrast to Booker T. Washington and his followers there arose the group ~f middle-class reformers. They were not and are not today entirely opposed to Washinoton's philosophy. We have in mi?d ~specially the founders and ~resent-day leaders of such orgamzatlons as the National Association for the Advance· ment of .. Colored People and the Urban League. We say t~ey are not entirely opposed to Washington and the T?skegee idea for they only objected to Washington's counsel that it would be extreme folly to agitate for social equality. They, however, accepted the basic part of the bootstrap lifters' -program; they ac~e~ted ~apitalism. On the basis of capitalism, it seems to them, it is still possible to make economic headway. !he N.A.A.C.P. began on a wave of resentment and anger agamst Bo_oker T. Washington's betrayal of the fight for equality. Beca_use, hke Washington, the N.A.A.C.P. accepted capitalism, ·it rec~ived ~he suppert of members of the white ruling class who behe_ved m Feform. The basic idea of the reformers is that it is possible to change capitalism for the better, that within the limits of the rresent system, by peaceful and gradual methods, it will he possible to do away with the oppression 0 £ the Negro peoplt>. But actual e~~nts have shown these people to be completely ~ro_ng. Conditions are actually growing much worse unrlt>r cap· 1tahsm.. The e~reme exploitation of the Negro workers ancl ~armers is not hem~ done away with; on the contrary, it is bt>in? mcreased. Acts of v10lence against l'<it>grot>s ha,·e multiplit>d. The methods of the N.A.A.C.P. have proved to be treacherous. The leaders of the organization are afraid to arouse mass move· ments. They prefer to meet representatives of the rulino class in the drawing room and make compromises with them. T~o recent cases show this plainly. In the Crawford case, where the Negro defendant was charoed with the murder of a white farm family in Virginia, the N.A. A.C.P. made an agreement with the prosecution as a result of 12 which Crawford was sent to prison for lift>. It turned out t]iat Dean Houston of Howard University, who acted as defense lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P., did not t>ven try to pro\'e the innocence ~f Crawford althouoh there was plenty of evidence to show _this. • e 1tted The case was carrit>d on quit>tly, no mass protest was perm • the sentence was not even appealed. From the very bt>oinning of the famous Scottsboro Case the N.A.A.C.P. attemptel to wrest the case from the hands of _the mass defense movemt>nt. They waged a bitter s~ruggle a~a1: ~ the International Labor Defense and the Commumsts. Why· cause they were afraid of the mass movement which had been aroused. They wanted to have quiet sessions with the Alabama lynchers, fix up the case behind the scenes. This would have meant sacrificing the lives of some of the nine Scottsboro boys and prisor, terms for the rest. The I.L.D., however, fought th: Alabama n'Ch courts and mobs, made the case known aroun the worla, roused millions of people. They fought not only for the lives of the boys but also for the right of Negroes to serve on juries in the South and other rights of Negroes. As a result of this method of fighting, the lives of the boys have been snatched from the electric chair four times. One of the principal lessons to he gained fro~ the fi~ht f~r the Scottsboro boys is this: It is possible to ohtam oertam vic· tories from the ruling class, but not by cringiilg, Uncle ~om ~r Judas methods. The only way such victories can be obtamed is bv rousin<T and orn-anizincr the masses, by rt>fusing to accept sops. · The r~former; have ~till another idea. They have a great reverence for the ballot, they think it can produce wonders. The leaders of the Socialist Party still cling to this old fairy-tale. The workers, they say, can elect themsehes into power an~ then peacefully bring about a change in capitalism. But what '.f thf" capitalists refust> to abdicate? Tht>v reply: "Well see then:' The miracle of the ballot! If the ballot can clo all they say it can how are the Negroes going to use it when 4,000,000 Negroes, eligible to vote, are disfranchised _? W~t>ll two o~t of thre; Negro eligible voters are not even permitted mto a votmg booth· We say that Negroes must have this right to vote, as w~ll as the other rights of citizenship. We must fight for these nghts. We say that the workers and the oppressed masses should u~ the ballot, the right of free speech and assemhl y, to elect theu 13 �ow~ representatives, and create their own organi~tions. We fight agamst every effort to take these rights away. But at the same time we emphasize that capitalism cannot be done away with by the ballot. We believe in using elections and_ our re?re~ntatives in elected bodies to rally the people a~~mst ~ap1tahsm. As long as capitalism permits the rights of citizens~1p,_ the working class should use these rights against the cap1tah~ts: ~ut anyone who tells you to depend upon the ballot and c1v1_l n~ht~ for your dt>fen:-:f' is betraying you. for, as has h:ippen~d m Gnmany, in Italy and in Austria, the capitalists take these rights away, forbid the right of free press, free assem· bla~e, free speech and the vote. And what then? Does not the rulmg class in the United States more and more deny the rights of citizenship to workers, have they not 1thyays denied these rights to Negroee? The "Race Criers": Black Patriotism Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, former editor of The Crisis who recently departed from the N.A.A.C.P., is today the clearest and foremost ~xpo~ent of Black Patriotism and race solidarity. We will exam· ine his arguments one by one, for they are the most complete and he!lt arguments for this point of view. We will then show how ~angerou~ such ideas are to the strug~le for Negro freedom. F,r3 t arg~ment: The Negro upper class, says Dr. DuBois. is not an exploiter of Negro labor. We have already shown that this is not true. It is rnrrect that th~re are very few Negro manufacturers or large landowners ~ho hire labor and exploit Negro workers directly. But there ~8 ~ Negr~ uppn class which lives by means of segregation. It 1s 1~ the mterest of this class to defend seare ..ation or tlw \·erv basis of _Negro business would be wiped ou;, On th: other hand, segregation is the worst feature of the oppression of the Negro massee. It is in the best interests of these masses to wipe out segregation. The interests of the masses and of the Negro upper cl ass cl~sh. In orde_r to obtain real equality, which means doing away ~1th s~gregalton, it is necessary to fight not onl y against the white rulmg c:la~s hut against the Negro upper class as well . Furthermore. tl 1s clear that the interests of the Negro upper class are the same as those of the white rulina class. Both classes wish to maintain segregation, and with i~ the basi~ of ~egro oppression. This unity of interest is shown clearl v in' 14 . action. On many occasions we have seen the so-called "respectable leaders of the race" openly cooperating with the ruling class. Second argument: The members of the Negro upper class, says Dr. DuBois, "bear the brunt of color prejudice because they express in word and work the aspirations of all black folk for emancipation." He goes on to claim the Negro upper class as the leader of the Negro people towards a new future. We know that a class which lives from crumbs off the table of American bia business of the Rockefellers and the Fords, which 0 ' accepts capitalism as the basis for its own existence, can not lead a strenuous and militant struggle for Negro liberation. But DuBois tries to dress this cringy warrior in shining armor, for he fears another class. He fears the working class. The workers as a class are the only consistently revolutionary class in present..day society. If properly organized and led, th~ can stop the wheels of industry. They are like an army: big industry has thrown the workers together, in large disciplined · masses. They organize in unions to fight for better conditions. To win better conditions they must fight against the capitalists. This struggle develops into a struggle against capitalism itself. The workers are the only class with the power to overthrow capitalism and build a new society. T hey lead the rest of the exploited population to this goal. It has been one of the most inspiring facts of recent history in the United States, that the white workers have begun to overcome white prejudices and lead in the struggle for Negro rights. This is in part due to the economic crisis. As they have lost their jobs, as their conditions have grown steadily worse, they have seen the necessity of uniting with their fellow black workers aga inst the employers. But it is also because of the fight of the Communists against prejudice and for working class solidarity and Negro rights. In the last six years, since 1929, the following high Iy significant events have occurred: A share-croppers' union, under Communist leadership, has been organized in Alabama and other Southern states, with a membership, at the time of writing, of close to 10,000 members. This is the first time that such a large and fighting union of share-croppers has been ahle to exist, to lead struggles against the plantation masters and to continue to grow. The Communist Party has been organizing white and Negro 15 �workers in the South. As a result, the feeling for solidarity has grown even in the American Federation of Labor Unions in ~e South, as, for instance, in the United Mine Workers of America in the Birmingham region. Under the leadership of the Communists, a mighty stru.g~le for Negro rights is being waged in the South. The outstanding example of this is the Scottsboro Case. In the North, largely as a result of Communist policy and agitation, larger and larger numbers of Negro workers are pa~t· icipating in the labor movement. There is a growing solidar~ty of white and Negro workers in the fight for unemployment m· surance ~d relief and in the struggles of the trade unions. This movement of solidarity and of unity has also been joined by Negro intellectuals, teachers, doctors and other professionals, who have left the reformers and understood the need of a revo· lutionary struggle against capitalism. Dr. DuBois expresses the fear of the Negro upper class for this movement. He is in favor of "race" solidarity and opposes the solidarity of white and Negro labor, which he tries to prevent. Third argument: He uses an old weapon of the white ruling class. He tries to turn the anger and resentment of the Negro masses not against the white capitalists and the Negro Uncle Toms, hut against the white workers. The exploitation of the Negro workers, in Dr. DuBois' own words, "comes not from the black capitalistic class hut from the white capitalists and equaUy from the white proletariat". He goes even further_, charging th~ white workers with causing the "lowest and most fatal degree of the suffering of Negro labor. The prejudice of the white workers, according to Dr. DuBois, is inborn and cannot be changed. The white workers cannot be trusted. They are the enemies of the Negro masses. To believe Dr. DuBois means to give up all hope of liberation. It cannot he denied that race prejudice exists among large sections of the white workers. On many occasions, white workers have participated in acts of discrimination against Negroes. But, any sensible person will ask, what is the cawe of this prejudice? Is it instinctive and unchangeable? We have already seen that race prejudice arises like a stench from the plantation system and from capitalist exploitation. We have seen that capitalism has fostered this prejudice in order to 16 . . . f l ~ om mas,;es and prewnl the mamtam the oppre,-~ 1011 0 . 1 H' ' r,.. B t . ha,·r also ,-c-en that unity of the whitc- workers with I IJt'm.l lu \\ke und ..... the "hill· . f d . I t lC )aC ·<rrO <. this prejudice begms to a r 1.11 0 strll""le ~ obtain their nee<l!-. workers unite with the Negrors 111 a '""' . f re'udict' Wh 0 .1re the real carnNs o P J We ,;hould also ask : ' . • That "rction of • ? A <l WC' mu'-t an!'\\f'f · · m the labor movemPnt · n · k'lled the better· , . h · lu<lr'-' tlw more s 1 h the labor movement w ic IIH' · b · lNl bv the falsr off sections of the workt-rs who hba,·c I et'rt1 m1l"·Hlrr;hi1> of thr and temporary " pro!-prri't Y" 'and I :Y t ir . np £'.the workers ha d. American Fedt'ration of Labor. T 115 ,-Pct10n ° 1 . ll bein" and d ·. f peqwtua \\e ~ het>n lull<'d lo slt·ep by the IP,un °] b.. n-"tli ·un Green, Mat· . , t1ie treacherou,- promises o f p l' ,"H'<' ·· · ma, f' ·' " • .· under . I pon the com1itions . But prejudice <lepencls ,;o mur i uf h ker'- influenced by . we live, . which th at even th'1" st>t:lion o t . r. wor I .- d the Ne"ro . I I . .. · IT il'- att1tuc e tow,u s " ,, <l the GrPl'll crow is a ,:o c l,lll,-lll,- · " · _1 r-11-. of labor I · · · · tint the;;e an:,. oc ' · · f worker,-. The reason or t ir,- i;- . .' • _ f the rconom1c . l · · ·t '" cl 0 ... ,t,on bec:au:-f' 0 l 11 are lo~, II;.{ l 1r1r pnvi ',..e · l h. out of emp oy· . . k')I d . k .... h·in· wPn t ,own .. cns1~. \la11Y ~ · 1 e \\Or ei . ' . d their "f'n<' ral cond 1t1 11ns menl. tlwir wages havP bf'f'I~ rcdf utc d{i 1~ in onlrr to liw. on·r to f 1µ l . anizt•d work-ers, are wor,:e. iev, too, ·111 b' ' Ill" r . 1·1z1• t Iiat I IIt' gn'··1l nr--" They beu in to rea ."· · o. u1101 I :g, · . ., in order • I:' . l <T"\n!Zf'tl rnlo t le. Ulll 011 . induclin" the \e .. ror~. mu;:l >c or,,, I ... Proof r ,.. . I ll · ck" ,,f thr emp O)e11;. to defend th<·m,-dws a•Talll!-l lie 3 ' 1 · · . · .J strikes "' f 1 . ,r.,an I zallon anu of thi s is th<' ITreal wave o trac l ' unw11 ( " i:• 19:Y' which lwcran lo sweep the country m · .:>. b k ··,rd ,ecti11n "' f . I , 110'-'t ac ", · Thr Soutlwr11 workn;:. "l111 ,11111 llH I f. •rwntions most . .01·k·111 -1-t ... , h l\t' 1r1·11 or gt · ' f of the J\ nwrwan \\ /! < • • · • ' • • . N! , · the cour:-r o . . 1 1 ·11 .. . 111TJ lld1n'. ' O\\. 111 I per,-1!"lc-nlh 111cu i.:at,·c 111 1 r.H' . l . . ti , ·u e dn-e · . f I . ' ·t 1lw1r c,p n1lPrs If'~ ' . a nrowi11g W,l\·c n strugµ ,, aµair,.. \I ti .111 .111 yonc cl,:e, ~ 1· 1 · .· 1 th, Ncu-rn 1111rkrr,-;. or<' 1• ' · I opm~ !'O II anty II I 1 I 1 ·o . . ,· I' 'l' alll!l<II" I 1ese 1111 we rcalizi• tl1e diffi("ull, of "'.IT'.'" f fill <,JU< ~;ul tlw {i~hl for Tl 111 ,IIH \. ,.. wor k·ers. H·,· Il,l\t' I'(· ' ·11 ft.d 1t .·,..IIIC't' . I". I ,1 ·us illu!'lrat" thi~. Lread an<l life is ,-tro11µer tl1:111 prt'Jllt II P . •, f bout . . f I S th thr rr wa,; a !-!r11up o a In an ind11,-1nal c1lv o I If' • nu ('Ill lon·d nwhlcrs, who a dozen \\ hill' worker,-. tllll~t of thr_111 t : ;nw v would mPet Lecanw i11tc-rc·stl'il i11 tlw C'.1mn~u111!'-I.· h,1r '(~ ,1rn1u.11i,-t or<T,mizer. ti ll• •..,,tu·1t11111 "rt a ,n , . onr.e a ,,1·1· k lo <I,,cu,-;s ' I , , r!'dr that 1t . . I. . , .·, I l ·e theY knew alH ,1~r . I· rom tht'ir own Hllf'r exp, i u t ·. I \ " workers 1n 111th t w · t>,...ro was nr!"l'~!",ll"~ I(, ' ,,·g,t , nize to!!;{'1hrr , 1i th<'w Woll. and their cohorts. ·r, . ., ~:l �==------ - - the same unions. For during the great railway shopmen's strike in 1922 their union had been smashed by the employers simply because the_union had refused admittance to the molder's helpers, who were l\egroes. When the strike broke cut. man v of the Negro workers saw no reason for helping the white wo~kers who had refused to admit them into the union and fi. (Yht for their demands. The result was that the employers now plu~ed the Neo-ro helpers in the molder's jobs, at lower wao-es of course and broke both 0 the strike and the union. ' But these white molders in their discussions with the Com· munist organizer, objected to social equality. One conversation ran somewhat as follows: White worker: I don't like Negroes, and I don't see why I .s hould sit beside one at a meeting or 0 11 a street car. Communist: Now you agree that white and Neo-ro workers shoul~ orga~ize together ~n the same union . Lt>t us i~agine that there 1s a stnke. There will he a strike committee. On this strike committee there will be both white and Neo-ro workers for es· peciall ~ in time of struggle we mu~t keep our ~ a nks united'. !"trong. . White worker : That's right. We'll have to keep our picket Imes strong, and slop any white or Negro scabs. Communist: It will he necessary for this strike committee to meet almost continually. You will not be a ble to meet in a public ha ll, for thugs and the poli<.:e ma)' be aftl'r you. and you cannot afford to ha ve the leadership of the strike put out of commission. You m~y have to meet in your own house, perhaps. W htte worker: Yes, if there is no other way out. Communist : Your home is small. You will have to use your largest room, the parlor. You will have Negroes in your p arlor, for you cannot Pxclude Negroes fro m the strike committee meet· ing. The str ikr is the_ most important th ing. This strike ma y be a very hard one. Durmg the most crucial time, it may be neces~ary lo mee~ late into the night, a nd go into action again earl y m the mormng. Some of the Negro members of the Com mittPe may live in the opposite end of town. They cannot go home. They may have to stay over. Wou ld you deny them the hosp ita lity of your home? Social eq uality, you see, becomes a necessity of the strike, of the class struggle. If you do not practice thi~ social equality, you will lost> the ;;upport of the Negro worker;; an d thP strike will be lost. 18 The white workers were a little taken aback. They thought it was driving things a little too far, although they could ~ot deny the logic of this argument. When in the local ele~hon campaign the Communist Party ran a Negro worker. as candidate for Mayor, these white molders refused to mee~ with the Communist organizer. But their attitude changed qmckly enough. Shortly after, the city cut down on relief. The Unemployment Council and the Communist Party called for a demonstratrnn of protest. Fully five thousand workers, both whites Ne~roes, responded. But the police broke up the demonstration immediately beating uo one of the speakers and arresting three. The • . to t he Unemp Ioyment workers' wera incensed. Large numbers came Council hall which could seat no more than 100 persons. On !11e long wooden benches were seated white and Negro workers s~de by side talking excitedly about their experiences, and cursmg . common ' . and the city · a dm'm1stra · f10n. And m terms the police talking just as excitedly with a group of Negro workers were some of these white molders whom it had been so hard to con· vince. The actual facts of life, their common experienoes with the Negro workers, had brought them together. · · 1s · h m"lt· P reJ·udice This is the way workmg class so I'd I anty may remam but it becomes less important, is superseded by the needs of the' daily struggle. The white workers will overcome _the hindrance of prejudice, because they must do so in order to l~ve. Now, Dr. DuBois, in rousing the enmity of ~~ Negroe~ ag~m.~t the white workers, as do other upholders of race sohd~nty , helps to prevent this unity. He takes advantage of the distruSt of whites which has been imbedded in the hearts of the Negroes by long years of oppression. He fans and builds this distrust. The conclusion: And what is the solution proposed by Dr. DuBois? · I "The only thing that we not only can, hut must do, 1s vo untarily and insistently to organize our economic and social power, no malter how much segregation is involved." Now if this is not an outspoken defense and support of segregation we do not know what is. Negro salva ....:-::.i is to come-· through ' segregation, the watchword of th e parasites among the Negro people! We have not much 10 add about the new Garveyites, about the movement led by the "Black Hitler" Sufi, the exponents of an? 19 �the 49th State and other similar race movements. They are all based_ on the same ideas expressed so well by Dr. DuBois. Whether it be a return to Africa or the creation of a 49th state for Negroes o: some other such Utopian, unrealizeable schemes, the~e provide no way out for the Negro masses. These plans a 7sume suppo1rt and cooperation of t~e white ruling class. They ~1stra~t the_ N_egro masses from effechve struggle against American 1mpena~1sm. T~ey lead deeper into the dangerous net of r~ce segregahon, which satisfies only the present interests of the Negro upper class and the ruling class of the country. These movem~nts towards race segregation have recently had a ~ew lease on life. They have grown as a result of the crisis which has ru~ned many Negro middle class people, who are desper~tely seekmg a way out. The increased persecution and terror agamst the Negroes has fanned this movement. Many participate because they honestly believe that this is the way out. . Among 1;he new movements of this character are those which aim to obtam "1' ob . . s f or Negroes" . Among these are the Costini movement m Baltimore. the Negro Alliance in Washinaton D.C., an~ the 143.215.248.55 moveme11t in Harlem. These movemen~s ;onfine their_ ~cllv1lles to individual establishments in the Negro communities. So small and few are these business houses, that it is clear that they could onlv, provide a 1·1m1"ted num b er o f JO · b s f or N 1 egro workers and would in no way help solve the problem of mass_ une:nployment. These movements, then, have the effect of hmdenng the struagl · o e f or unemp Ioyment insurance for all workers and for adequate r el'1ef . They sh unt this · struggle mto · a closed alley. . But juSt as dangerous to the real interests of the Nearo masses 1s the · strength enmg · ': . effect , of this movem en t m separation of the wlute and N:gro workers. For the leaders advocate the replacem~nt of white ~orkers employed in Negro neighborhoods. In this_ way they. d1rect the resentment of the Negro workers not rtgamst t~e rulmg class but against the white workers. Instead we should duect all our efforts towards the organization of the Negro wo_rkers together with the white, the opening of the doors of all um?ns to Negr~es, equal opportunities for jobs in white as well as m Negro ne1.ghborhoods, and to obtaining adequate insurance for the unemployed from the Federal Government. Another movement especially dangerous at this time is the 20 Pacific Movement of the Eastern World, which has as its main slogan: "United Front of Darker Races tnder Leader~hip of Japan." The agents of the Japanese ruling class have organized and sponsored this movement in the Cnited States. Their p~rpo~e is to try to create difficulties for the ruling class of Amcnca ill case of a war between Japan and the United Stales. Such a w:•r is n11w very possihle-a war between two brigands for the spoil!! and riches of the East. But the Japanese ruling class is no mort> a friend of the Negro than is the ruling class of the l_;nited States. The Japanese capitalists have not hesitated to subdue and rule Korea with an iron hand although the Koreans art' a colored people. They have made all haste to grab Manchuria and other sections of Northern China. They carry on a rrlentless w~r against the Chinese people. They are now intriguing even 111 Africa and ar1\ penetrating the Philippine hlands with the purpose of seizing territory there ali;;o. At tlw same time, the lap· ane;.e rulino-r class is carryina on the mo1et ruthlt•ss kind of ter· ,., ror against _he toiling masses of Japan, suppressing tracle union:and peasants' organizations, ~mashing str-ikes, etc. In this strucrale between the J. ap,rncse and Arnerican ruling ""' . class for the division of the East and for the right to exp Iotl additional masses of toilers, we side with neither. We wish for the defeat both of the Japanese and of the Amt'rican ruling class. We wish to see then, both o,·erthrown; capitali,-m in ]dpan as ":ell as in the United States destroyed. Our task is to fight agmn~t American imperialism, ju:' t as the task of the Japanese workt·rs 15 to struggle against Japanese imperialism. Japanese capitalism is now one of the principal enemi~s of the Soviet Union. It is seizing additional territory in North China in ord r to be better prepared for a war against the So· \'iet l!nion. Japanese statesmen freely admit this. Japanese Lrnops an conc1:P'rate<l on the Soviet borders. The Soviet l:1iio11 is different from all the other countries in the world. There capitalism has. alrP,ady b:en overthrow·~'. the workers and farmers rule; machmcs. foctones, banks, rat roads and land ar<> in the hands of the toilers. Colored peoples of all races }iye in the territory of the :,o\'icl l.'nion. The~ 1wuplPs enj oy the fullest et\ualit\' and frpcdom. Any act or exprr,a!-inn nf race prejudice 1~ r.onsiclcred a crime. Thei;;e facts ha\'t' !wen fully confirmed by sue.:-, pt'ople a!' Paul Robe;;.on and 21 �other prominent Negroes who have either visited or who live and work in the Sovirt l :nio n. Robinson. a Negro mechanic, i!' a member of thP :\1oscow SoviPL th<> chiPf o-overnmental bodv of the capital of the Soviet Union. The S1)\'iet o-~vernment has re~ouncr cl all t_he specia l pri\·ilrges formerly held by the Tsar in China. Persia, Turkey and o thn Ea$lern countries. And yet the _agent~ of JapanP!"e capitalism are spread in~ the lie that the Sonet Un10n 1s one of those "white nation!"" whi ch seeks to dominate the col o red proples of the world! From Dr. DuBois throug h the new editions of Gar\'n and tht' intrig ur.s of J aparw,-e rapitalisb there runs a common streak: race loya lty,· race solidarity, race patriotism! Will these so lve thf' problem of th_r. Ne~ro people? For a reply one need only ask: Has S<'gregat1on solved this problem? Is it not true that segrr.gation is the prohl r.m, the ve rv thino which has to be wiped out? And th~sr $avior;o propn!-1' · to he~p still more and e1·er more segregation upon u;. ! The Threat of Fascism of th,• lead in!! fa1ci~t journals in Germ1\uy say~: In each NPgro, en~11 in one of thr. kindest disp11sition is the latt>nt brutr and thr prilllitive man who can be ta med nr itlwr ~y r.e 11 turit•s of !"la vc ry nor by a n e xterna l varni;;h of civiliza tion. All ~s,-i~i lation, a ll ed ucati on is bound to fail on accc,unt of the racial inborn fea ture:; of the blood. One can therefo r«" undrrstand wll\' in the Soutl l [ f 11 • . _ .. . 1crn $ a tes o .·, men ca] sheer nt'CT"· si~y compe ls the white _r;i.ce to act in an abhorrent, and perh,1p,e\rn c ruel m,11111L·r a"'am"l the Nc"roes A J f f c• o . 111 , o eo urse, mosl u h N t e 1 «"~roes ~hat ar: IvnchPd do not meri I all\- r t>!!re t." Spokenhke a _Kleagle of ~hP Ku Klux Kiani This expres.S'eS the thrrat of fa scism to the J\e,.ro <11 ou) ) ·1 t h L' · .1 . o ~ c I cnme o t e •n ll t:11 Stairs. 1 he co un trv. wou ld br.· nnt- rl u m a· m · o f th r '-Upe r- K K K . 1'he 1N'e<> ro would be the ,-11· •f ·· · f f · - · · : r ~ 1, \ 1ct1m u a,;c1:::t per;;ecul1011 · and murder. Lvnchin 1 spar t o f tne 1. ·. "'o- would bPcome the n a 11ona f . asc1st mercrnanes. Already tht- budclino- fa'-cJ·'-t · 1· · . o - - orgamza 1011~ m th . into their is country have t, . wnttrn the dci:tradation of the Neoro prowam as t I1cir most sacrrd princip lr. F_a:<=ism is rapidly growing in the l:nited States toda,. As cond1t1ons grow worse, as the masses of people become · more and more dissatisfied and st>ek a way out of the misen· impc,1-ed ~ Ill' 22 . by capitalism, the capitalists turn to th e road qf fascism. It i~ the last line of trenches for capitalism before the onru:;h of the · re \•olutionary army. When fascism comes rnto power, a·:s wr ;,ee in the fascist countries of Europe, the last liberties are taken away from the masses. The trade unions and all independent organizations of the masses are smashed; only governm~nt or co~pany unions and fascist organizati ons are permitted. An open dictatorship of the capitalists rules the country. One can well imag ine what the lot of the Negro people would be u nd e r s uch a dictatorship. Under President Roosevelt, the road is being pa\·ed for fa~cisrn. With the help of the N.R.A. labor boards, the attempt I!! heing made to force the workers into company unions, to abrogate the right to strike, or to place the unions entire ly under government control. More and more power has been concentrated into the hands of the President who turns more directly to the hiuh financial moguls of Wall Street for his orders. There are ra;id preparation~ for war and increased propaganda of nationalism and patriotism. But the President a nd his aides carry out these policies under cover of man y phrases and promises a bout helping the people. The people are radica l-minded ; Roosevelt, therefore, uses some radical phrases. This al so i!" a method of the fascists, who have made demagogy a supreme art. He talks about .chasing the 1111111ry-dianµ;ers from tht> lt'mple , but aicls big business. But there are othr.rs with their ears close to the ground who · the use o f anti-cap1 · ·1a ISt Iango even further tha n Roosevelt m g uag<'. Thest> are the budding fascist leaders, like Father ~oughlin, ·W illiam R. Hearst and Huey Long. Father Coug~~m an~ Huey Long are clever men who talk about the inequalities an injuMict>s of cap italism and because of this get a ready response from m any people who do not yet understand how to do away with these injustices. Hearst throughout his whole life h~s ~een a \·irio us enemy of the workers and a loyal defender of cap1tahs;Hc realizes th;,t thr. Coug:hlin and Long methods are today t e · to pro 1ong t h e 1·f ·sm · He therebest 1\ a\" 01• trnng 1 e o f capi·tal 1 . f fore supports thcr~ and offers them the services of his cham 0 anti -labor newspapers. But it wa,; with language s~ch as these men use that Hitler built his fascist storm troops m Germany. Hitler obtained his funds from the biggest industrialists and finan- r 23 �cier>- of Germany, just as C't'rtnin bi!! liankers in the tnitecl States are today beginning to suppo;t budding fascists in the l :nited States. Hitler also talked about limiting fortunes, doing away with unemployment, re-dividing wealth. et~. But these only remained empty promises after he came into power. That Huey Long, a representative of the plantation masters 01 the South, that Father Coughlin, linked to Wall Street through the Committee for the Nation, that Hearst, the kina of anti-labor and anti-Negro propagandists, should have to talk ~"ainst ouManding evil~ of_ cap!talism in order to save it shows on: i,nportant thing. ~ap1t~lt~m is on the brink of destruction. People nu longer believe m 1t. The turning point in history has come. The mas!:ies of Negro people certainly have no desire to see the rresent system of society in the United States continue. It has meant more suffering and slavery for them than for any other section of the population. What are the important chano-es which have to he made? How can they be made? " II. THE NEGRO AND REVOLUTION Two Revolutions in One . The pro~lem of Negr_o liberation has two aspects. The first the question of equality, Here we ask: what must be done to re~ove the basis of _the special persecution and oppression of t~e Negro people, to wipe out lynching, segregation, sucial ostra· c1sm as well as extra-exploitat_ion on the land and in industrv? The sec_ond is common to all w~rkers and exploited, whether they be white or Negro. Here we ask: what must be done to wipe out wage-slavery, unemp loyment , pO\·erty, crises and war? . These quest10ns are not entirely separate, but are connected with each other. We s~all first consider each separately and then show how the solulton for the first flows into the solution for the second. JS The Rebellion of an Oppressed Nation Th~ special oppress.ion of the Negro people in the United States 1s due to the firmly _rooted remainders of chattel slavery. Every one know:s. that while chattel slavery was abolished as a result of the Civil War, freedom-such as even the white workers have under capitalism-did not take its place. Elements of the old chattel slave system remain 10 this very day. 24 \ ~ These remainders of chattel sla,·ery can be <liviJed into t_he economic and the social. The most important economic r~ma 1'.1• den; of sla\'ery are the plantation system and share-cropp_ing Jll the South, which we have already described. But t~1e exi~te'.•;~ of these in the South not onlv enslaves the Negroes m the Bia Belt, but drags do, ,1 the '.\egro population throughout the country. It al:,.o affects the white population in the South. There an' many white sharP-croppt'rs whose conditions are only little bt'ttf'r than those of the Negroes. They will not be freed from _the lef~overs of the chattel-sla\'e svstem unless the Negroes are hberatf' · The most important s~cial heritage of the chattel-slave system is the idea of •·white superiority" and race prejudice. 1:hese ideas were not wiped out becaµse chattel slavery was not entirely wiped out. Alexander Stephens, the vice-president of the Co~d ·' on this f ederacv. said that the cornerstone of th e S out h reste up . great physical, philosophical and moral truth that ~he _Neg:: is not eq ual to thf' white man, that slavery-subordmatJon d' · " That the superior race--is his natural and norma I con itJon. remains the philosophy of the ruling class of the South tod~yTo fully realize how much of chattel slavery still remains in the South one has onlv to know that the largest mass of Negroes still live in the territor; of the old ~lave plantations. The plan· tations have remained 'and have imprisoned a large portion of the Negro population. On this territory-the Bla~k Belt~th e Negroe!' are in the majority of the populati~n. ) et precisely here is the centPr of the enslavement of the J\,egro pe_opl~- . 11 . Jt WI As long as tht' plantations an d ;.hare-uopprnp;~ ren~am, he impossible for !\iegroes to obtain equality. For Ill order to riae above the plantation !eve!. it Is fir!'t m~ces!'-ary to remo~e th ~ plantation and didde the land among the tillers of the soil. This can only be rlone by the organized power o~ the mas!SeS of Pxpl oitf'd share-croppers and farmers on tht' land._ ~uch a complt>te tran~fonm1ti on. howe, er. 11·i II not come o,·rrn11?"ht and can be succe!'sful onlv as thr result of organiwtion. preparation and proper leadership. Tlw rapid ~rowth of the Share-Croppers Union of Alabama and of the Te1,ants' Union of Arkansas shows that the situation i!' ripe for rapicl organization. This land revolution will also be joined by the hundreds of thousands of white share-croppers and poor farmers who ha~e suffered from the plantation and credit system. They, too, will 2.S �the neGessity of throwing the large landowne rs off their back:!, escaping from the t.yranny of the credit masters and the usun·rs, and of giving land to the landless. Seventy-five years ago, the North went to war i11 orJer to destroy the power of the slaveowners. That. too, was a re rnlution. But it was not "finished. Our task is to finish it. But the revolution will not stop with the seiiure of the land. That will just he the beginning of a complete, really basic change in the homeland of lynch terror. For just consider where this land revolution will take place: precisely in the plantation country, where the l\egroes are today the most oppressed ~ction of the population and wlwre they form the majority of tht~ population. Let us imagine such a revolution taking place in the Mississippi River Delta. Here there are huge plantations. In ~ome counties the Negroes are as high as 90 and 95 per cent uf the total population; throughout this area they are not less than 60 per cent. With the power of the plantation owners destroyed, a new kind of government will he set up by the farmers and the "orkers in this territory. For the first time Negroes and op· pn·ssed "poor'" whites will really enjoy democracy. The Negroes "·ill play the leading role both in the land revolution and in the rww revolutionary governments. The same will occur throughout the plantation area-from southea!'lern Virginia, down through the Carolina,- ,and central Ceorgia, a<.:ro!',- Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, rcachin~ even into Arkansa~ and parts of Tennessee and Texas. Now will be 1ho opportunit~ to reall y e~tablish the basis of Negro £rcedu111. This land, on which the 1\egroes h ave been e nslaved for genera· tiomi, can then Le made into a free land. It can he proclaimed as a new country, in which the land has been freed from thr exploiters, where the majority-the l\egro people-rule with the cooperation of the white :nasses in the territory. The white mas~s on the land will support this new govern_n ient for it will mean that their right to land is also recognized, that for the fir~t time they, loo, will have the benefits of free f>Ublic school 1•«lucatio11, frt>edom from usury, etc. The old South "'·ill no longn remain . The :\egrncs will come into their own. The real test of freedom for the Negro people in the Black Belt lies in their right to self-determination. Unless they can chose freely fur themselves what the relationship of this new 11ee 26 . S h le they will not government will he to the Umted tales as a w O , • . · power in Washmgton h e free. If the capitalists are st1·11 m h h "'e ·11 d try to crus t e recan rest assured that t h ey w1 oppose an d f l hellion of the I\e"ru people. The Negro people nee pfowefr u . c, d d f d th . revolution or ree· a 11 1es to carry throu"h an to e en is . l . h o ll . th workmg c ass, t e dom. They will have such an a Y 111 e . f h d secllons o t e leading force in the struggle,; o f a 11 oppresse 1 . t" population of the United States ,1gain,-t capitaliSt · exp tta 1~· \\·e must now conside r tlw rt·1·1ilutio11 which will ta e P a<e ° throul!hout the country . The Proletarian Revolution . · The United States Capitalism is aivin° birth lo rern1ution. . . l . . o o . I . . n · . "l Bnt1sh l onun,1was f rcatr.d a~ the result ol a n•y,, ut1 on a'°a lll- . . h . . 1 I 1· . •volut1on ao-,unst t e 0 t1on. It stren,,.thenc<l 1tself as I 1c res u t o H re . n . . 1· . cl C3)' lll 0n lt can 11 0 • slaveowners in 1861. Now capita 1,;m J!" e I . lonner supply the needs of life t o those who produce. f t 1: ;'.1 o . . .. . -w s)·stem O soc1e ~. outworn system. It mu::-t " Ive v.a) lo a ne . . "' k l ce which can come A complete trausf urmat1on must t::i. e P a , nnh· as the result of a social re\·ol utwn. d . . · L d 1 · order tu u a\, a~ \Vhat basic change must e pro uccl m . · . ._ b " 0 . I , ·) C·ip1tali~m 1,, a_e with wa o-e-sla,·erv. unemp nym ent. \\ iH · ' . . l d , .. . ,f h" f· torie!I ra1}rc>cll1::o, an upo11 the private 01, 111'r,;h1p o mac mes, .ic , . _ . 'fh n'- nf product inn a1 e and a ll ntlier means of productw n. e men . · I · 1· ·t" The <crcate51 pnu· in the han ds of a small class, tie capita i:, - · , c. · \l ' llions 1 · · 1· · t ·c1 Jerty and pwut. · 1 <:1ples of capita 1,;111 are pn,·a e P • •. f l'f B t thesr I of workers produce to!!elher the 11eccss1t1es O e. u l. . .. . . f I " vho own the mac unei;, neccss1t1es bi>come the proper!~ 0 110 -e ' . mone , with the land. etc.. while the workers do not h a,e th e ff ) C ]. · C . .. of people su er. 0 which to buy thrm. n ;;es occu r, masSt.::, . f fit. . 1·1s I po,\.e r "· m a race or pro on ies arc seized bY Ihe 1:ap1tn and b ooty Capital'i:-m (Yivcs birth to war. . f Onlv o~1e thin!! can <lo away wi th the ha~is for the ex 1hs tence o . . , . . f h . ·1 J' st" Take t e means capitalism : the expropnallon o I <' cap1 a J • - · l l d f the s o l em, Pl ace theni 111 t 1e 1an of production awaY f rom 11 h d of workers who will .produce, not for profit, hut f~r t eh_~eeh~noe · m · a. pos1' tion to hnn" c " hv csociety. The working c Iai;s is d o t '"c,rted about. It alone, by its own org~mzed eff orlt~ a;nd chang~, the rest of the oppressed population, can rea Y . h Y • • • h' h r. This C anue IS Ill transform the system under w JC we I\~- b , itali«°m itself. evitable. The workers are dri\'rn towards 11 Y cap - ~~!f 27 �But an attempt to brino- ab t h b . rnedialt>l ,. meet th" ? . ou sue a as1c change would im' oppos1t10n of the c api't a 1·i:,,ts . an d tI1eir . :,tale ~ . owE>r Th" · ..:t P · b J ate power consistc; t l Of h . ernment but of th h - no on Y t e bodws of 0uov' e army, t e police th Pxpropriate the cap1'tal1' st·~ th e wor k·e rs, fi. e t courts. InJ' order to d existina o-ovE>niiii~iit m 1 . d rs nee to 1sca rd the ot-> , ae1:11eryan t - · · · /!11,·e rnme11t. Sud1 a r~·.- l t' o rnsl1tute a workmg class . ~·o u ion was '-Ul'l'e ·sf 11 . d h h · 191-, 111 Ruc.-.iJ 1 d h l · · · · s- u Y• carne t rouo-0 , .un er t e ea cl ers h ip --.. . . 11 I o1 the Communist Party. Th S h . . 15 1::- t ie basi c char , from wa.re-slaver)· ·111d fige. uc a r_evolut1on frees the work&s .., ' rom opprC'sc.10n b th . 1· worker,; are in powe r Th . k ,· Y e capita 1sts. The . · c "or er" OO'ovr.r t effort of the ('" Jn ·it ·il ·, .· . t · ·h · nmen suppresses every • ' r ' ~.,,. o restore t e old " t U . workers rrovernmt'lll ·h' h --YS em. nder this new c• ..., I C cru·uanlee th 'd d the masses the bui!J' fc- . . . s e w1 est emocracy for 111 /!." o socialism beo-· . ' 0 I h . . possible to have --ocia I l . oms. n Y t en 1s 1t masses. lo abolish ~nf'm iio an~mg to fill_ the needs of all the But . d I ) mt nt, to abolish war for profit m or er to accomp lish th I • . tlw workers neecJ th . . feh revo ut1on and to def Pnd it t ::, upport o t e O th I . d the population Whi'l, th k er exp oite !'f'ctions of · < <' wor ·prs ar · · · and lead such a rc\·nlution th e m a ~os1t10n to organize selves. They ha vP all. . . hey cannot ~arry it through by them1. The m . f ies m t, e population. These allies are: as::, o µoor and sm ·d I f· h by big busine,-,-, the true. " , ,1r~ers, w o are oppressed th<' middle cla---- in th . L: ~he monopolies and the bankers; also t' c 1t1e~, c.uc li as th t h . . h . .. fess1onals c.mall bu· . · e PC mc1cms, t e pro. ., · ~111c~:-men et -h . italism and who have t' ti: c., ..., _o art' suffering from cap· 2 Th \ E'r~ 1111 i! to ~nm under socialism · e oppn-',-,-pd :\P~ro pPople. · . ~- ~he oppre,;~Pd 1woµ les of th 1\ .·. . Phil1ppme Island-. r 1 · l ~ thmri 1cm colo111es-the ' . • \. U ,a, l'tc- ·in< of ~ dC who are undn the dumin · t· ·· ' f h · ou_ an entrnl America Among the . a ion " t_ l' capitali st,- of thP l '.S. most ,.mportant al h es 1if· I k. • t ze u:or ·mg class is the Negro peoplP. ;,, the , _, -, d S . ·· (. m e tares Th 1._ f t d · tht' 1 . f · - ac etermmes the re1atrn11 hetwef'n \\n aspectc. o tlw . . I · . . oµi11 :l· i11 thi~ countn· · lt'\o utiun wl11ch is devel- The Combination of Two Revolutions The rl'rnlutio11 for L11cl an<l frt'ed . prolet~rian rernlutiou in tlw countn o~n _m the :,ou!.h and the hand -in hanJ E·irl ·11 1 _) . s a v,hole will J ew lup . . .· . ' 1 w1 Pnn ~trl' ll)/."th ;ind h 1 he wo1k111g da;;~- - both \d 1i· tu' ,·111<1 "\l')!ru --will support t e other. lt'adtolwth. 28 How does it come about that the white workers not only will, but must lend their support to the struggle for Negro liberation? First of all , because the workers will not be able to overthrow capitalism unless they have the help of the Negro people. This is why we say that it is inevitable that the white workers, even the Southern white workers, fight for Negro freedom and s_upport the struggle of the Negro people. They will do so necause it is necessary for their own victory. The Southern white workers especially will ; upport the Negroes in their struggle. For in the South the power of the landlords and capitalists is threatened most of all in the Black Belt. Here the class struggle is very sharp. This is the weakest front of capitalism. Just imagine what consternation will seize hold of the ruling class of the country when the struggle in the plan· tation country reaches the stage of revolution! The revolution which breaks out here micrht indeed be thE' spark for the proletarian revolution through0out the country. The white workers will understand that the struggle of the Negro people for freedom weakens the power of their own oppressors, the capitalists. Between the proletarian revolution and the revolution of the Negro people for land and freedom there is a living link. This is the working class. It is among the workers that solidarity first develops and is the strongest. In the cities and towns of the ~outh and in the big industrial centers of the North this solidaritv between white and Negro l abor is forged. Here reposes the le..idership of the two aspects of the revolution . But there also must be present a conscious organized group .)f workers, which realizes the necessity of revolution and which the masses in their daily· struo-o-les towards this end. This lea<ls , 00 l 1s the role of the Communist Party. Communists do not on Y talk about the future revolution , but are active fighters for the daily interests of the masses. In unions and other working class organizations, in strikes, in demonstrations, in elections, we Communists endeavor, while playing a leading part in the strug· gles of the masses, to convince them of the correct, revolutionary way out. And one of our principal lines of activity has always been to develop now the solidarity of the white workers and Negro masses, to build this alliance in our daily life and struggles, to assure the combination of the two a!:'pects of th1i1 American revolution. 29 �In. building this class solidarity there is a division of labor, but wit~ a common aim, between the white and Negro workers. The "'.hi~e worke~s must realize that the main responsibility for estabhshmg working class unity rests upon their shoulders. They mu~t lead the fight against race prejudice in the ranks of the white masses. They must remember that for centuries the Nearo people have ~een oppres~ed by white nations. Among the Ne;ro masses there _1s ~ deep distrust of all whites. The plantation sys-' tern and capitalism have created this distrust and it cannot be d~n~ aw~y with merely in words. Race prejudice pollutes the air m this country. After having been excluded from a number of _labor uni~ns, having been ostracized by many sections of whites, _there 1s no reason for Negroes to believe in words only. They can ?nly be convinced by action. If they see larger number. of white workers actually fighting for Negro rights fiahting against race prejudice, insisting upon equal treatment in laces for Negroes, t?en they w~ll have cause to rely upon the white workers as the~r ~Uy. This is the only way this distrust can be overcom~. Thi~ _is why the Communists, especially the white Commumsts~ vi_gilantly guard their Party against the :.nfluence of race pre~udice. No white worker is deserving of the name of Commu~ist u~less he constantly carries on a struggle against every mamfestation of ~ace prejudice among the workers. . The Negro w~rkers, m order to achieve working class solidarity, ~~ve the ~hie! t,!sk of fighting against "black patriotism" ~d r~ce s~hdanty . They must constantly fight against the 1 eas O sue people as Dr. DuBois for, as we have seen they strengthen the Negro's distrust of the wh"t h h . 1 e work ers. N 0 N' egro as t e ng~t to call himself a Communist unless he fi hts con· stantlf agamst the Negro "race" leaders, unless he i~ always ex~osmg the role of those who call for separation between white an Negro, unless he is constantly explaining the unity of interests of. the. Negro masSt:s and of the work"mg c l ass. The Negro C omm~mst IS first an~ foremost the exponent of the proletarian revolution, for he realizes that this alone will guarantee not only freedom for the Negro but also emancipation of all toilers. ll How Will the Question of Self-Determination Be Settled? . The Communists fight for the right of the Black Belt territory to self-determination. This means not only that the Negro people shall no longer be oppressed but shall come into their 30 rightful position as the majority of the population in t~e Black Belt. It means e uallv the ri!!ht of the Black Belt re ubhc freely to determine its relations to t e ·nited States. One cannot tell in advance under what circumstances the question of the riaht of self-determination for the i\egro people in the Black Bel~ will arise for definite sul ution . There are . two distinct pu:,sibilities. first: The re.volution in the plantation country might mature sooner than the proletarian re\·olution in the country a::- a whole. This is a possibility because of the fact that capitalism is weakeSt in the South and the enslaved Negro masses on the land are a revolutionary force of great power. It is certain. howe\·er, that the revolution in the plantation country cannot come to a hea_d and press for victory unless capitalism throughout the count~~ I!' in difficulties, already being threatened seriou!;ly by _the nsmg Working-class movement. In this situation the rebellion of th e Negro people would give new strength to and hasten the pro~etarian revolution. The working class, led by the CommumSl Party, would come to the aid of the masses in the South to prevent the capitalist ruling da::;s of the North from suppressing the revolution in the Black Belt. Cnder these circumstances the C~mrnunists in the Black Belt would favor, and would do everythmg in their power to win the laboring people uf the Black Belt ~o fa\'or complete i11depe11dt'1!,'t" from the capit •li,-t-rulecl repubhc of the North. For complC'te independence of the Black Belt re· giou would then mt>an greater freedom for the ~egroes and a serious weakeninu- of the power of capitalism in the country as a whole. All Cu~1munists would defend the rig.ht of the Negro people to make their choice. . r Second: The proletarian revolution may overthrow capita ism and establish a So,iet Government for the country as a whole before the revolution comes to a head in the Black Belt. However it must be kept in mind that the two phases of the revolu· tion will no1 develop separately. Thus, while the_ worker~ are leadina the onslau<Tht anainst capitalism, the revolutionary seizure o e t th same O of the plantation land and large-scale farms may a e timt> he proceeding in the South. But once the workers come to power in the United States the rernlution for land and freedom will be hastened and completed. One of the first steps of the - .. ·11 l- t t the riaht of self· 11" o gran e centra I !'iov1et go\'nnment w1 elermmat10n to the Negro peop e in t e ac · Be t. - ---·- - 31 �h the workers and peasants troops of the foreign powers and w ere S · li'st Soviet gov· . esta bl'1sh'mg autonomous f ocia had succeeded ID d ated themselves · nts at once e er ernments, these S oviet gove:rnme . Onl as the revolution to the central Russian Sov~et Republic.the c:unter-revol utionary developed in the other regions and as S . t vernments estab· intervention armies were defeated, were ovife got 1 Russia gave . th h th k'ng class o cen ra 1ished f th outlying regions there. Al oug e wor i 1 direct aid to the struggle of ~e peop eths O e ter -revolutionists, . th . t· arnnes and e coun . agamst e mterven ion "th the other Soviet none of these regions was forced to fe~er~te w;f the Soviet Union Republics. To this very day, the c?nst~tution all the nations at permits the right of self-determmation to This would mean that thr :'.e;!r<> peopl e in the Black Belt will have the ri ght to choosr for them!-elves Lrlwt>rn fr.deration wi.th or srparation from tht · l" nit r d States as a whole. The S onet Power, the workt>r;; and their µ:ove.rnm ent. will µ:uarante e thi,right : First, becau,-e tlwre will be no reason for th e forcihlf' anne xation of the l\egro Republic. With the o\·erthrow of capitalism, the basis of all exploitation will ha\e been eliminated, thesebv al,-o thP. ba,-is for th f' exploitation and oppression of th e ~e~ro · people. SPrn11d. the fr ee union of p,..oples on the basi,- of equality is possible only through free choice arrived at by tlw majori ty of the people. The very fa ct that the victorious workin g clas!'- and its Soviet l!overnmrnt would guar;-intce compl ete anrl unlimi tPcl freedom of choice would in it!'-e lf he a guaranlt•t> of freedom in thr full sen!'-e of the word. Undt>r sur h cirr um sta111 ·1•,th e Negro Comrnuni !-ts would urg1• and fight for frdrration with the Sovi et republic of the Vnited States, for this course would bP to the best intere:sts of the Negro peopl e and all workers. 111 th e event , how1· v1:r, that th e choice is aµ: ain st federation-the Communi st Party and the Soviet gon•rn1111·nt would respect th,. will of the Nr g ro pcnplr. I n st;i ti11 0 our po~iti on on thi s q11e~ tio11, " a rr ;ruidcd no t only by tlw th r orf'li cal prin ciplrs of the Communi ~t Part y hut a lso hy th r actua l n w ri Pm:c of th f' Ru!-~ian Hl·voluti on. Hure a num hrr of rl n 1: lop n· ·11ts in th r solution of the qu Pstion ot' sclfdd rr rni11 ati 1,n 11<T11r1 I sirnult.111 Pou,- ly. Tlie Cn·at Hu ss ian s. whnsl' ruli n;.r da ,-!" op1,ri · •I the oth er l"l'l r !- within the Tsa rist 1-:mp irr , 1:orn pri!-ecl onl y ·d ,nut 1-5 Jlt' r i;e nt of the population uf tlw old Hus;; ia. Uoth d urin l[ th e• fir st rev1-lutio11 in ;\for!'h, 1917. whr n th P Tsa r wa s ov,·rtl ir o \111 , a nd rlur in;_! the sr l'ond n •vo lu tion of i\ mPmLrr. l ') I , . whr n tlw po wer of th e r·a pitali --t,- ,11111 larnl ow rwr;; wa,- de!- troy,:d and th e Sn\·il'l Gm·prr, mPnt ""L1hl i,- lwd. ·th,· workns had th r support of t hr p1 •a;; a11l !- not nn h · i 11 1·1·111 ra I Hu ~sia hu t also in ·a n uml wr of ou th·inµ: rPgio 11s wlw n· tlw oppn·;;srd nat iona l J>P" fll P l i,·1·1I. llu t tlw rt · \ olut io n di d IH•t rlr·\·d op 1•\·r nl v 1·\·1·n wh,·rr . 1 · nde r thr,-c· r· irn1rn!-la11 rrs. h o w w ;1,th<' '.lu<·!'ti on of sl' lf-d,·tPrmi nation ;;1·1Ll1•rl 't T he fi r~t act 1,f ll w Sovi Pt Co V('l'IIJn f' ll t wa ,- I n i,;stw a d, ·n, ·1· µ-rant ing thl'. ri ght of ~1·lf-d1·tn rni11 ation I n all till' nati ou -- of tl w fo rm<' r Hu ,-~ ian 1·mp irc a11rl full 1·1pial r i;r ht~ within th,• F,·dn al1 ·d Sovif't H1•p11 J.li es. 111 th11~p rt';_!11111,- whi('h wr· r,• not 111·1·11pi1·d ln~2 present in the Union. ts In some regions the There were also other developmenf · . ry leaders who . d h . ft ence o reactiona people were still un er .t e ID u Either the proletarian revoWere supported by foreign powers. . t yet strong enough lution was suppressed or the proletariat was n? 1 aders to cafry . . h nor mdependent enough f rom the bourgeois e Finland wh1c . . Such a case was ' through the revolution to victory. E . Towards the end at one time was a part of the Russiand ms;redomination of the of the World War Finland came F~ .e~ ~ing class sup pressed German Army' with wh~se aid the IDn~sher an indep endent ~ethe proletarian revolution and estabhs . ts Did the Soviet public under the domination of the cathpitaUis . . of Soviet Re. . I d ·nto e ruon Government try to force f 1D an i h . of the Council · 8 the c airman Le publics? On the contrary, nm, a . R bl · himself per· of People's Commissars of the So~et ~~nish Republic sonally acknowledged to a representat~ve o i:m official sanction the right of that countr y to secede an gave r tt to do so. h S lny " said Lenin " I very well remember the scene at t echa:~r t~ Svinkhovod, l ater " when it fell to my lot to grant th~ . who had played the . h bourgeome ' . of th e r·mnis the representauve h d and we pal"d each part of hangman. He amiably shook w': I But it had to be other complimente. Ho~ unth pleabant eoisie falsely persu.aded the done because at that ume e o~rg that the MoecoVlteB . wer:; ted to crush the Finns. people, the toiling masses, to bel_1eve chauvinists and that ·t he Great Russians wan h F' s the th~ d t anted t e mn And if the Soviet Government ha ~o ~ force this would right to secede and attempted to keep t em y uld h' ave looked F · · h masses wo have meant annexation. Th e mms . sor no better than upon the Soviet Government as a foreign oppres ' • 33 \~ �· Tsari!ID. Today, the Finns are under the hard and brutal reac· tionary dictatorship of the Finnish bourgeoieie, but there will be no doubt that once they have overthrown this bourgeoisie there will be no hesitation to federate with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Government and the Communist Party recognized the rights of all the nations which had formerly been oppressed by Tsardom. The Soviet Union is composed of more than 100 different nations and national minorities. The oppression of these nations is now impossible because the masses of that nation which formerly oppressed them have overthrown the bourgeoisie and the landlords and are building socialism. These numerous nations live in complete harmony with each other. They have received direct aid from the Great Russians in building their industry, improving their agriculture and achieving complete economic equality with the other peoples of the Soviet Union. The proletarian revolution first wiped out the basis of national oppression. Then it began rapidly to lay the basis of equality. For many of these formerly oppressed peoples had been retarded and held back by Tsardom. It was necessary to carry through the development of industry and agriculture in the regions where the formerly oppressed nations lived, at even a quicker pace than in Central Russia. We have witnessed here the most rapid development of peoples that all of history can show. Nomadic peop led were lifted out of their backwardness, almost overnight devtl 01-,ed into an industrial and modern agricultural people without h~ ring to go through the stage of capitalism. Cultural development is equally swift. The basis for inequality is rapidly disappearing even in most backward areas. The S'lviet Union has proved the correctness of the Communist program. If in the former "prison of nations", where the question of national liberation and of national prejudices is very much more complicated than in the United States, such signal success has been achieved, can there be any doubt about the realization of equal and even greater success here? The Revolutionary Wey We have seen that only a basic change can guarantee to the Negro the possibility for a decent livelihood, the rights of human beings and an equal, honorable and respected status in all public and social life. The ruling class will not permit such a change. 34 in order to The masses of exploited must ~erefore orgamze rnake use of their right to revolution. h · It is forced Lt f our own c oosmg. Revolution is not a ma er O • d grinds us down upon us by capitalism itself, which degra e; us, exploitation into the dust makes life unbearable. As ong las . ' . d th have been revo ut10ns. ere f human and oppression have existe The revolutionary way has al":ays beehn the u7::f 0 a revolu· . to bemg as t e res . r progress. Cap1ta ism came m bT . Europe. Socialism 1 1 tion against feudalism ~nd the no 1t{ 0 a revolution against came into bt>ing in Russia as the rehsu b" h nd progress of the capitalism. Revolution has marked l _e 1~1 a '"•ary to remove . N 1 voluuon is nece ... li mted States. ow anot ter re f h rogress. But the d ke way for urt er P f . d a ecaymg system an ~a h ther revolutions o 11 0 a new exploiting proletarian revolution differs _from a It hi~ory. All previous revolutions resu _!e ~~e majority of the class coming into power a nd suppres:--lm~ the maJ· ority coming · re,o . lution. .resu ts. m 't . and removmg . the people. Th e pro l etanan into poweT, suppressing the explo1tmg_mmoOn )I then is the poa· n v·., Society, orp;an· · · b11sis of all explo1tat1on an d °ppress1on. . aII cl as;;e. .. · · with · d sibility created for omg 3 " ay . the Sol"iali,at :oystemi1.ed in a new social and eco_n~>m•cf.,,.Y l .sfte~~ bundanee. 1.:an now prov1"de t he nee t' ~·situ•-.•· o I e III a th 'legro been !'tranp;e to e . The revolutionary way has noll . . "tru.,o-les ha\'e glor· , 1 • d St tes He,·o ut1onar y . ,-o I8 µ,•nple in th e L mte ~ a · h courageous strutz!! e itiecl their history. Ha\"e w~ forg143.215.248.55: tt e aaainsl thr sla\"e mer· nf ihr African peoples for ltfe an . 1 er Y1 ~ ? Even the few d h Amencan r o on1es. ·f d1ant;, of Europe an I e d . written history tesll Y inc iden ts which have been presPrv~ Ill ·1gainst Pnslavement find inspiration lo the determined struggle of the egroels • . . The Negro peop e can N t from the very b egmnmg. G b . I Denmark Vesey, a in the revolutionar y attt'mpts of . ah n~ '. the numerous slave 111 Turner and unt o11l tIwu:-,rn Js of h"!' ter,,, h der"round ra1·1 roa d · 1 • l '-It tes and m t e un e l revo lts in the mtel ~ a ' ' l t" nary war of t h e Ame r· 10 · · ted in the revo u Many Negroes partic1pa .. he Civil War itself was a re vo• icun colonies against the Bntish. T h ..,ero ypsterclay chatti>l • a -those W O " " • lution •m which the ,'"eeroes . slaves !-fouaht for land and hherty. I mbattlt>d NeJi;ro 0 c· ·1 w decade when t lt' e • . f That glorious "I ar_ . bloodhounds of reacuon or fought with gun in hand agamsft lthe cl . todav an heroic, revolu• the riahts of citizenship and o un is . " 35 t J. �fore be faced with the need of obliterating this inequality which it will have inherited from capitalism. The fundamental policy of a Soviet Government with regard to the Negro generally would therefore be to create even relatively greater opportunities for advance and progress for the Negro than for the white. Special emphasis would be placed upon training more Negro skilled workers, upon technical and other forms of education, upon inducing larger numbers to take up engineering, science, etc. The technical schools, colleges and universities, most of which are today either out of the reach of or closed to Negroes, would be placed at the disposal of Negroes even to a proportion· ately greater degree than of the rest of the population. This is the only way that special privileges for the whites can be done away with. A Soviet Government must confer greater benefits upon the Negroes than upon the whites, for the Negroes have started witn less. This is the real test of equality. This is the only way that the basis for real equality can be established. Any act of discrimination or of prejudice against a Negro will become a crime under the revolutionary law. The baais of race prejudice and oppression will no longer exist because cap· italimi will no longer exist. But it would be entirely Utopian to believe that the day after the revolution all prejudice will disappear. Capitalism will leave some of it behind like a stench, just like it will leave behind other capitalist ideSB and preju· dicee. But these will be systematically fought by the Soviet Government and the Communist Party until they are extinguished. Then it will no longer be a question of wiping out !he basis for such prejudices, but of merely obliterating the remnants. Social· ism will remake man. To the first generation of new Soviet Americans race prejudice and discrimination will appear like a horrible disease of a past age. In affairs of State, in the political activities of the country, in management, in all phases of public life, with the removal of all discriminations, the Negro will be playing a prominent part, just as Georgians, Tadjiks, Ukrainians, etc., are today among the leaders of the Soviet Union and its Communist Party. The horrors of segregated, over-crowded ghettoes will disappear. All residential sections of the city will be opened to the Negro. There will be no segregated areas. If Negroes wish to remain in Harlem, for instance, they will be perfectly free to S8 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 74 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/3d9ca0665d86013c4f640bf34c2ac0dc.pdf a73187c94b7dd4faac88c47c2230d6dc Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, GOALS, AND COMMITMENTS EMERGENCY CONVOCATION: THE URBAN COALITION We are experiencing our third summer of widespread civil disorder. In 1965, it was Harlem, and the disaster of Watts. In 1966, it was the Hough area of Cleve land, Omaha, Atlanta, Dayton, San Francisco and 24 other cities. This summer, Newark and Detroit were only the most tragic of 8 0 explosions of violence in the streets . Confronted by these cata strophic eve nts, w e , as r e pres e ntative s of business, labor, religion, civil rights, and local government, have joined in this Convocation to create a sens e of national urgenc y on the need for positive action for all the pe ople of our c ities. We are united in the following convictions: W e b e lieve the tangible e ffe cts o f the urban riots in t e rms of d eath, i njury , a nd prope rty dama ge , horri f ying though the y are , are l es s to be feared than the intangible damage to men's minds. W e belie v e it is the gove rn ment' s d ut y to ma inta in l a w and ord er . W e bel ieve t hat o ur thoug hts a nd actions should b e direct e d I to the d eep-roote d and historic proble ms of the citie s. W e believe that w e; as a nation. , must c l earl y and positivel y demons t rate our belief t hat justice , social progress , and equality of opportunit y a re ri ght s of ever y c itize n . We believe the American peopl e and t he Congress mu st reorde r nationa l priorities , with a commitment of resources e qua l to the magnitude of the problems we face. The crisis requires a new dimension of effort in both the public and private sectors, working together to provide jobs, housing, �STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES I GOALS• AND COMMITMENTS Page 2 education , and the other needs of our cities. We believe the Congress must move without delay on urban programs. The country can wait no longer for measures that have too long been denied the people of the cities and the nation as a whole--additional civil rights l egislation, adequately funded model cities, anti-poverty, housing, e duc a tion, and job- training programs, and a host of othe rs. W e believe the private sector of America must directly and v i gorously involve itse lf in the cris i s of the cities by a c ommitment to inve stme nt, job-training, and hiring, and all that is nece ssary to the full enjoyme nt of the free e nterprise system--and also to its survival. W e b e lie ve the sickne ss of the citie s , including civic dis order within the m, is the res ponsibility of the whole of Ame rica . There fore , it is t he re sponsibility of e v e r y Ame rican to join in the creation of a new p olitical, s oc i a l, e con o mic , a nd mora l c limat e tha t will ma ke p o s sible the breaking of the vi c·ious c yc l e of the g he tto. Effort s must( be mad e to i nsure the broa de st pos sibl e opportunity for P.ll c itizens a nd group s, i ncluding those in t he ghetto, to part ic i pat e fully in shaping and direct ing t he society of which the y are a part. This Conv oc ation calls upo n t he nation t o end once and for all the shame of poverty amid gene ral affl u e nce. Government and business mus t accept respons ibility to provide all Americans with opportunity to earn an adequate income. Private industry must greatly accelerate its efforts to � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, GOALS, AND COMMITMENTS EMERGENCY CONVOCATION: THE URBAN COALITION We are experiencing our third summer of widespread civil dis- order. In 1965, it was Harlem, and the disaster of Watts. In 1966, it was the Hough area of Cleveland, Omaha, Atlanta, Dayton, San Francisco and 24 other cities. This summer, Newark and Detroit were only the most tragic of 80 explosions of violence in the streets. Confronted by these catastrophic events, we, as representatives of business, labor, religion, civil rights, and local government, have joined in this Convocation to create a sense of national urgency on the need for positive action for all the people of our cities. We are united in the following convictions: We believe the tangible effects of the urban riots in terms of death, injury, and property damage, horrifying though they are, are less to be feared than the intangible damage to men's minds. We believe it is the government's duty to maintain law and order. We believe that our thoughts and actions should be directed to the deep-rooted and historic problems of the cities. We believe that we, as a nation. must clearly and positively demonstrate our belief that justice, social progress, and equality of oppor- tunity are rights of every citizen. We believe the American people and the Congress must reorder national priorities, with a commitment of resources equal to the magnitude of the problems we face, The crisis requires a new dimension of effort in both the public and private sectors, working together to provide jobs, housing, STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, GOALS, AND COMMITMENTS Page 2 education , and the other needs of our cities. We believe the Congress must move without delay on urban programs. The country can wait no longer for measures that have too long been denied the people of the cities and the nation as a whole--additional civil rights legislation, adequately funded model cities, anti-poverty, hadelag. education, and job-training programs, and a host of others. We believe the private sector of America must directly and vigorously involve itself in the crisis of the cities by a commitment to investment, job-training, and hiring, and all that is necessary to the full enjoyment of the free enterprise system--and also to its survival. We believe the sickness of the cities, including civic disorder within them, is the responsibility of the whole of America. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every American to join in the creation of a new political, social, economic, and moral climate that will make possible the breaking of the vicious cycle of the ghetto. Efforts must/ be made to insure the broadest possible opportunity for all citizens and groups, including those in the ghetto, to participate fully in shaping and directing the society of which they are a part. This Convocation calls upon the nation to end once and for all the shame of poverty amid general affluence. Government and business must accept responsibility to provide all Americans with opportunity to earn an adequate income. Private industry must greatly accelerate its efforts to  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 73 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/c18957575606f8776ed5deba1a19dc7a.pdf d72a0584e9c14b46cf26aa28c0b20012 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. Those attending the rr1eeting included: I. W. Ab e l, President, Unite d Ste elwork ers of Am e rica, AFL-CIO Arnold Aronson (representing Ro y Wilk ins), Executive Secretary , National Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Mayor Joseph M. Barr, President, U.S. Conference of Mayors Andrew J. Biemiller (representing George M e any), Legislative Director, AFL-CIO ' . Walter Fauntroy (repres e nting Martin Luther King), Washington Representative, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Arthur S. Flemming, President, National Counc11 of Churches Andrew Heiskell, Chairman of the Board, Time, Inc. and Chairman, Urban • America Inc . Joseph Keenan, Secretary-Treasurer, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO Mayor John V. Lindsay, Executive Committee, U.S. Conference of Mayors Mayor Arthur Naftalin, Chairman, Com munity Re lations Committee , U.S. Confere nc e of Ma yors Gerald Phillipp e , Chairman of the Board, G e neral Electric I 1. Walter Reuth e r, President, Citi z ens Crusad e Against Pov e r t y and Pre sident, United Auto Workers, AFL-CIO David Roc ke fell e r, Pre sident, Chase M anhattan Bank / Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin, President, Synagogue Council of America Bayard Rustin (repre senting A. Philip Ra ndolph), Ex ecutive Director, A. Philip Randolph Institute Bishop Paul Tanner (re pre sen ting Archbishop De arden), G e n e ral Se cre ta ry , National Confe r en c e of Catholic Bishops John Whee i er , Pr eside nt, M e chanics a n d Farmers Ban k, Durh am , N . C . , a nd Preside nt , Southe rn Re gional Coun c il Whi t ney Yo un g , Exe cutive Direc to r , Na tion a l U rb an Leag ue 7/ 31/6 7 ~ l p ..m • . � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Those attending the meeting included: I. W. Abel, President, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO Arnold Aronson (representing Roy Wilkins), Executive Secretary, National Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Mayor Joseph M. Barr, President, U.S. Conference of Mayors Andrew J. Biemiller (representing George Meany), Legislative Director, AFL-CIO Walter Fauntroy (representing Martin Luther King), Washington Representative, Southern Christian Leadership Conference Arthur S. Flemming, President, National Council of Churches Andrew Heiskell, Chairman of the Board, Time, Inc. and Chairman, Urban » America Inc. ; Joseph Keenan, Secretary-Treasurer, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO Mayor John V. Lindsay, Executive Committee, U.S. Conference of Mayors Mayor Arthur Naftalin, Chairman, Community Relations Committee, U.S. Conference of Mayors Gerald Phillippe, Chairman of the Board, General Electric Walter Reuther, President, Citizens Crusade Against Poverty and President, United Auto Workers, AFL-CIO David Rockefeller, President, Chase Manhattan Bank Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin, President, Synagogue Council of America Bayard Rustin (representing A. Philip Randolph), Executive Director, A. Philip Randolph Institute Bishop Paul Tanner (representing Archbishop Dearden), General Secretary, National Conference of Catholic Bishops ; John Wheeler, President, Mechanics and Farmers Bank, Durham, N.C., and President, Southern Regional Council Whitney Young, Executive Director, National Urban League 7/31/67 11 P.Ms gf ays) ae  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 72 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/11c680f6b6e88d982dfde3bae54487d8.pdf 7be1cf3cbd249ead2b55f9e5d611a408 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. STATEMENT UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE URBAN COALITION July 31, 1967 · Washington, D. C. PREAMBLE The tangible results of the urban riots in terms of death, injury, and property damage are horrifying in themselves. The intangible damage in terms of the riots' effects on men's minds may yet be even greater . . At this moment, millions of Americans are forming attitudes that could mean disaster to our social structure: the home-owner who vows to shoot . the next suspicious character he sees in his neighborhood; the businessman who decides. to g~t out of th_e slums; the labor leader who determines to keep minoritiE;s out; the insurance man who refuses to cover slum properties; the Negro or White who goes out to take whatever he can get his hands on; the legislator who fails to meet his public responsibHities. These people and others are reversing a trend that, however slowly, was working to the benefit of our cities' disadvantaged minorities. Let them realize that it is the citizen, in the end, who will keep our country united or will • divide it. It is government's duty to maintain law and order. st~nd that law and order is not an excuse "for oppression. . If law and order is to \ . But all must under- - be accepted by the minorities, the majority must clearly and positively demonstrate its belief that justice, social progress, and equality are rights of every citizen. J>. · We, the undersigned, pledge ourselves to this purpose. We will call upon ~he leaders of all segments of society, city by city, to publicly commit_ . themselves to 'programs enabling the disadvantaged minoritie s to share in all of the benefits of our society. .. · . . �STATEMENT UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE URBAN COALITION Page 2 This conference of leaders of business, labor, religions, education, civil rights, and c:i,J:y govern ment has formed an Urban Coalition to bring about a sense of immediate urgency about the need for positive and progressive action for our cities. Lawlessness and all its ingredients cannot be tolerated. Looting, burning·, and bottle throwing are criminal acts and must be dealt with as such. But let not a reaction to acts, committed by a small fraction of the population of the country's ghettos, blind us to the absolute necessity of moving dramatically and immediately to correct the desperate condition of our urban centers. We call upon the Nation and the Congress to reorder our national priorities, with a commitment of national resources equal to the dimensions of the problems we face. • The crisis require s a full new dimension in both the public and private sectors, working together for jobs, housing, education, and the oth er needs of our cities. ( This Coalition believes th e Congress must move without delay on urban ·programs. The country can wait no longer for model cities, antipoverty , ·'· housing, education , and job··training legislation, and a host of other matters that have been too long denied ·t he ci_ties. We call upon the Federal Government to develop an Em ergency Work and Reconstruction Program to provide new training programs and jo bs .. · ·. �STATEMENT UNANIMO.USLY ADOPTED BY THE URBAN COALITION Page 3 for the unemployed. The Coalition also belie ves that the private sector of Ame rica must .. directly and vigorously involve itself in the crisis of the cities by a commitment to investment, job training and hiring, and all other things that are necessary to the full · enjoyment of the fr~e ente rprise system, and also to its survival. To carry this forward, the .Coalition commits itself to proceed immediately to promote "Earn and Le arn Centers" in the cities of the country to provide job training a nd jobs. The Coalition agree s these centers might w e ll b e the joint venture of business, labor, and local governme nt. The Coalition believes the sickne ss of the citie s, including civic disorde r within the m, is the r e spon sibility of the whole of Ame rica . Ther e fo re , it is the · responsibility of eve ry Ame rica n to join in the cre a tion of a n ew political, socia l, e conomic and moral climate whic h will make poss i bl e the bre a king up of the vic iou s c ycle of the gh e tto. ( The Coa lition's commitme nt can be for no l es s and its d e t e r min a tion is for e v e n mo re . Th e C oal ition'furth e r co mmit s its e lf to conve n e a n U rba n Co a lition .>. Eme rgency Convo ca tion in Wa shi ng ton n ear the e nd of Augu st . The Convoca tion w ill b e a t t e nded by 1 , 0 00 l eader s a cro s s t he Na tion of bu s iness , l a bor, re ligion , e duca tio n , c ivil right s , and c ity gov ernme n t. ·. .. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document STATEMENT UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE URBAN COALITION July 31, 1967 Washington, D,C, PREAMBLE The tangible results of the urban riots in terms of death, injury, and property damage are horrifying in themselves. The intangible damage in terms of the riots' effects on men's minds may yet be even greater. ‘ At this moment, millions of Americans are forming attitudes that could mean disaster to our social structure: the home-owner who vows to shoot the next suspicious character he sees in his HSiohborhosd: the businessman who decides to get out of the: slums; the labor leader who dotenes to keep minorities out; the insurance man who refuses to cover slum properties; the Negro or White who goes out to take whatever he can get his hands on; the legislator who fails to meet his public responsibilities, These people and others are reversing a trend that, however slowly, Was working to the benefit of our cities' disadvantaged minorities. Let them realize that it is the citizen, in the end, who will keep our country united or will divide it. It is government's duty to maintain law and order. But all must under- stand that law and order is not an excuse for oppression. If law and order is to. be accepted by the minorities, the majority must clearly and ROditively demon- strate its belief that justice, social progress, and equality are rights of ehety citizen. hit : We, the undersigned, pledge ourselves to this purpose. We will call upon ia leaders of all segments é society, city by city, to publicly commit themselves to programs enabling the disadvantaged minorities to share in all of the benefits of our society. $a STATEMENT UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE URBAN COALITION Page 2 This conference of leaders of business, labor, religions, education, civil rights, and city government has formed an Urban Coalition to bring about a sense of immediate urgency about the need for positive and progressive action for our cities. d Lawlessness and all its ingredients cannot be tolerated. Looting, burning, and bottle throwitid are criminal acts and must be dealt with as such. But let not a reaction to acts, committed by a small fraction of the population of the country's ghettos, blind us to the absolute necessity of moving dramatically and immediately to correct the desperate condition of our urban centers. We call upon the Nation and the Congress to reorder our national priorities, with a commitment of national resources equal to the dimensions of the problems we face. The crisis requires a full new dimension in both the public and private sectors, working together for jobs, housing, education, and the other needs of our cities. ; | ; - . This Coalition believes the Congress must move without delay on urban programs. The country can wait no longer for model cities, antipoverty, housing, education, and job training legislation, and a host of other matters that have — too long denied the cities. We call upon the Federal Government to develop an Emergency Work and Reconstruction Program to provide new training pregrams and jobs STATEMENT UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE URBAN COALITION Page 3 : for the unemployed. The Coalition also believes that the private sector of America must directly and vigorous: involve itself in the crisis of the cities by a commitment to investment, job training and hiring, and all other things that are necessary to the full enjoyment of the frée enterprise system, and also to its survival. To carry this forward, the Coalition commits itself to proceed imme- diately to promote "Barn a Learn Centers" in the cities of the country to provide job training and jobs. The Coalition agrees these centers might well be the joint venture of business, labor, and local government. The Coalition believes the sickness of the cities, including civic disorder within them, is the responsibility of the whole of America. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every American to join in the creation of a new political, de lst, economic and moral climate which will make possible the breaking up of the vicious cycle of the ghetto. The Coalition's commitment can be for no less and its determination is for even more. The Coalition‘ further commits itself to convene an Urban Coalition Emergency Convocation in Washington near the end of August, The Convocation will be attended by 1,000 leaders across the Nation - of business, labor, religion, education, civil rights, and city government.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 71 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/4b116c031d791db4e66fc4ab2e44cfb6.pdf fa263d2881681edcc333b5a99f7ca06c Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. t I I I FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM: The -' Urban Coalition For further information: Donald Canty , Urban Americ a Inc., 265-222 4 The Urban Coa lition has scheduled its Emergency Convocation for August 24 at th e Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Co-chairmen of the Convoca tion will be Andrew Heiskell and A. Philip Rand~lph. Mr. Heiskell is chairman of the board of Time Inc. and also of Urba n America In c. Mr. Randolph is president of the Brother- hood of Sl eeping Car Pqrters. The Coalition was formed Monday , July 31, by 20 national leaders . . of business, la bor, relig ion, civil rights, and city government. It is calling the Convoca tion to mobilize the nation 's public a nd privat e resources in .a concerted atta ck on urban problems . Announce ment of t he da te and co-chairmen of the Convocation wa s made today a t a pla nning meeting i n th e Urban America o ffi c es . Also releas ed wa s a list of 12 a dditional individuals who had e x pressed support of the Coa lition but wer e unabl e to a ttend the July 31 me eting, and have joined the origi na l 20 leaders as members of. the Coa litio n St eering Committee: May or Ivan All en o f Atla nta; Roy Ash, Presid e nt of 4tto n Industries; Mayor Jerome P. Ca vanagh o f Detro it; Fre d eri ck J. C lo se , Chairman o f t he Bo a rd o f the Aluminum Compar:iy of America; Mayor John F. Co llins of Boston; __}>. Mayor Richard J . Dal ey of Chicago ; Henry Ford II, Chairman o f the Ford Mot or Company; James Rouse, President of The Rouse Company and of Urban America Inc.; The odore Schlesinger, President of Allied Stores Corpora- ,., �The Urban Coalition FOR IMMED IATE RELEASE Page 2 tion; Asa T. Spaulding, President of t he North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company; David Sullivan, Pre sident of the Building Service Employees International Union; and Mayor James H. J. Tate of Philadelphia, Presi- " dent of the National League of Cities. The Coalition ex pe cts an att endance of l , 00 0 at the one-day Convocation. Each segmen t will issue invitations to 2 00 individuals. , In the morning, there will be a general session on the Convocation' s three major pro gra ms. The y are: --An emergency work program to provide job training and employ- _ ment for the urban poor, now being draft ed into specific legislation ; - -A major ex pa nsion of th e priv ate s e ct or' s efforts to train a nd provide jobs for the hard-core unemploy ed, such as the "Earn and Learn" programs now underwa y in several citie s; --A long-ran ge program fo r th e phy sica l a nd s o cia l r e c o nstruction of American citie s "to bre ak up the vicious cy cle of th e ghetto," in th e . . \ . words of th e Co a lition's July 31 state ment of purpo se . Following the morning session, a d el egatio n from the Coalitio n ' s Steering Committee will ~all upon Congressiona l leaders o f both partie s . to present t hese programs. In the afternoon, the Convocation will break up into work groups to d i scu ss the means o f implementing these programs, particularly through formation of local coalitions involving the same segments as the national ..· ·. �The Urban Coalition FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 3 effort. At the end of the day, there will be a general session to hear a report of the Steering Committee delegation to Congress. The July 31 meeting at which the Coalition was formed was convened by Mayor Joseph M. Barr of Pittsburgh, president of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, and by Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, a member of the Conference's executive committee. A copy of the Coalition's statement of purpose and a roster of the full Steering Committee are attached. .>. . ·. . � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM: The’Urban Coalition For further information: Donald Canty, Urban America Inc,, 265-2224 The Urban Coalition has scheduled its Emergency Convocation for August 24 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Co-chairmen of the Convocation will be Andrew Heiskell and A. Philip Randélph. Mr. Heiskell is chairman of the board of Time Inc. and also of Urban America Inc, Mr. Randolph is president of the Brother- hood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Coalition anes formed Monday, July 31, by 20 national leaders of business, labor, religion, civil rights, and city government. It is call- ing the Génvoostian to mobilize the nation's public and private resources in a concerted attack on urban problems. Announcement of the date and co-chairmen of the Convocation was made today at a planning meeting in the Urban America offices. Also released was a list of 12 additional individuals who had expressed support of the Coalition but were unable to attend the July 31 meeting, and have joined - the original 20 leaders as members of.the Coalition Steering Committee: Mayor Ivan Allen of Atlanta; Roy Ash, President of Litton Industries; Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh of Detroit; Frederick J. Close, Chairman of the Board : of the Aluminum Company of Ametiea} Mayor John F, Collins of Boston; Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago; Henry Ford II, Chairman of the Ford Motor Gonpany: James Rouse, President of The Rouse Company and of Urban America Inc.; Theodore Schlesinger, President of Allied Stores Corpora-  The Urban Coalition FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 2 tion; Asa T. Spaulding, President of the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company; David Sullivan, President of the Building Service Employees International Union; and Mayor James H. J. Tate of Philadelphia, Presi- dent of the National League of Cities. The Coalition expects an attendance of 1,000 at the one-day Convocation. Each sepnant will issue invitations to 200 individuals. - In the morning, there will be a general session on the Convoca- tion's three major programs. They are: --An emergency work program to provide job training and employ- ment for the urban poor, now being drafted into specific legislation; Sah major expansion of the private sector's efforts te train and provide jobs for the hard-core unemployed, such as the "Ear and Learn" programs now underway in several cities; --A long-range program for the physical and social reconstruction of American cities "to break up the welous cycle of the ghetto," in the | words of the Coalition's July 31 statement of ero Following the morning session, a delegation from the Coalition's Steering Committee will call upon Congressional leaders of both parties | 6 present these programs ; In the afternoon, the Convocation will break up into work groups to discuss the means of implementing these programs, particularly through formation of local coalitions involving the same segments as the national The Urban Coalition FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 3 effort. At the end of the day, there will be a general session to heara report of the Steering Committee delegation to Congress. The july 31 meeting at which the Coalition was formed was con- vened by Mayor Joseph M. Barr of Pittsburgh, president of the U. S. Con- ference of Mayors, and by Mayor John V, Lindsay of New York, a member of the Conference's executive committee. A copy of the Coalition's statement of purpose and a roster of the full Steering Committee are attached, att  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 70 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/099310955816a3b6911cc3f6a8d6ae9c.pdf 1f9bd21f60c256aba3f9128e3f67db2b Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM: The Urban Coalition For further information: Donald Canty, Urban America Inc., 2 65-2224 The Urban Coalition has scheduled its Emergency Convocation for August 24 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D. C. Co-chairmen o f the Convocation will be Andrew Heiskell and A. Philip Randolph. Mr. Heiskell is chairman of the board of Time Inc. and also of Urban America Inc. Mr. Randolph is president of the Brother- hood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Coalition was formed Monday, July 31, by 20 national leaders of business, labor, religion, civil rights, and city government. It is call- ing the Convocation to mobilize the nation's public and private resources in a concerted attack on urban problems. Announce ment of t h e date and co-chairme n of the Convocation was made today at a pla nning meeting i n the Urban America offices . Also releas ed wa s a list of 12 additional indiv i duals who had expressed su pport of the Co a lit ion but wer e una bl e to attend the July 31 meeting, and have joined the ori gina l 2 0 l ead ers as members of the Coa lit ion St eering C ommittee: May o r Ivan All e n of Atlanta; Roy Ash, President of 'i-,itton Industries ; Mayor Jerome P . Cavanagh of D et ro it; Fr e derick J. C lo se , Chairman of the Boa rd of th e Aluminum Company of America; Mayor John F. Co llin s o f Bosto n; Ma y or Ri chard J. Dal ey of Chicago ; Henry For d II , Chairman of the For d Mo tor Company; James Rous e , Pr es ident of Th e Rouse Company and o f Urban America Inc.; Theodore Schl es inger, Pr eside nt of Allied Stores Corpora - �r The Urban Coalition FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 2 tion; Asa T. Spaulding, President of the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company; David Sullivan, President of the Building Service Employees International Union; and Mayor James H. J. Tate of Philadelphia, President of the National League of Cities. The Coalition expects an attendance of 1,000 at the one-day Convocation. Each segment will issue invitations to 200 individuals . In the morning, there will be a general session on the Convocation' s three major programs. They are: --An emergency work program to provide job training and employment for the urban poor, now being drafted into specific legislation; --A major expansion of the private sector's efforts to train and provide jobs for the hard-core unemploy ed, such as the "Earn and Learn" programs now underway in several cities; - -A long-range program for the phy sical and social reconstruction of American cities "to break up the vicious cycle of the ghetto," in the \ words of the Coalition's July 31 statement of purpose. Following the morning session, a delegation from the Coalition's Steering Committee will call upon Congressional leaders of both parties to present thes e programs. In the afternoon, the Convocation will break up into work groups to discuss the means of implementing these programs, particularly through formation of local coaliti ons involving the same segments as the national �7 The Urban Coalition FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 3 effort. At the end of the day, there will be a general session to hear a report of the Steering Committee delegation to Congress. The July 31 meeting at which the Coalition was formed was convened by Mayor Joseph M. Barr of Pittsburgh, president of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, and by Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, a member of the Conference's executive committee. A copy of the Coalition's statement of purpose and a roster of the full Steering Committee are attached. \ � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM: The Urban Coalition For further information: Donald Canty, Urban America Inc. , 265-2224 The Urban Coalition has scheduled its Emergency Convocation for August 24 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C, Co-chairmen of the Convocation will be Andrew Heiskell and A. Philip Randolph. Mr. Heiskell is chairman of the board of Time Inc. and also of Urban America Inc. Mr. Randolph is president of the Brother- hood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Coalition was formed Monday, July 31, by 20 national leaders of business, labor, religion, civil rights, and city government. It is call- ing the Convocation to mobilize the nation's public and private resources in a concerted attack on urban problems. Announcement of the date and co-chairmen of the Convocation was made today at a planning meeting in the Urban America offices. Also released was a list of 12 additional individuals who had expressed support of the Coalition but were unable to attend the July 31 meeting, and have joined the original 20 leaders as members of the Coalition Steering Committee: Mayor Ivan Allen of Atlanta; Roy Ash, President of Litton Industries; Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh of Detroit; Frederick J. Close, Chairman of the Board of the Aluminum Company of America; Mayor John F. Collins of Boston; Mayor Richard J, Daley of Chicago; Henry Ford II, Chairman of the Ford Motor Company; James Rouse, President of The Rouse Company and of Urban America Inc.; Theodore Schlesinger, President of Allied Stores Corpora- The Urban Coalition FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 2 tion; Asa T. Spaulding, President of the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company; David Sullivan, President of the Building Service Employees International Union; and Mayor James H. J. Tate of Philadelphia, Presi- dent of the National League of Cities. The Coalition expecis an attendance of 1,000 at the one-day Convocation. Each segment will issue invitations to 200 individuals, In the morning, there will be a general session on the Convoca- tion's three major programs, They are: --An emergency work program to provide job training and employ- ment for the urban poor, now being drafted into specific legislation; --A major expansion of the private sector's efforts to train and provide jobs for the hard-core unemployed, such as the "Earn and Learn" programs now underway in several cities; --A long-range program for the physical and social reconstruction of American cities "to break up the vicious cycle of the ghetto," in the words of the Coalition's July 31 statement of purpose. Following the morning session, a delegation from the Coalition's Steering Committee will call upon Congressional leaders of both parties to present these programs. In the afternoon, the Convocation will break up into work groups to discuss the means of implementing these programs, particularly through formation of local coalitions involving the same segments as the national The Urban Coalition POR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Page 3 effort. At the end of the day, there will be a general session to heara report of the Steering Committee delegation to Congress. The July 31 meeting at which the Coalition was formed was con- vened by Mayor Joseph M. Barr of Pittsburgh, president of the U. S. Con- ference of Mayors, and by Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, a member of the Conference's executive committee, A copy of the Coalition's statement of purpose and a roster of the full Steering Committee are attached, HHH  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 69 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967 https://ivanallen.iac.gatech.edu/mayoral-records/traditional/files/original/71a89003d7b7573d01f933587e57a27e.pdf e225a735858575a7adb7340043432d56 Scripto Transcription A written representation of a document. I.~Steering Committee The Urban Coalition Co-Chairmen: Mr. Andrew Heiskell Mr. A. Philip Randolph I. W. Abel President United Steelworkers Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. Atlanta Roy Ash President Litton Industries Mayor Joseph M. Barr Pittsburgh President, U.S. Conference of Mayors Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh Detroit Frederick J. Close Chairman of the Board Aluminum Company of America Mayor John F. Collins Boston Mayor Richard J. Daley Chicago Archbis hop John F. Dearde n President National Conference of Catholic Bishops Dr. Arthur Flemming President National Council of Churches Henry Ford II Chairman Ford Motor Company Joseph D. Keenan Secretary International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King President Southern Christian Leadership Conference Mayor John V. Lindsay New York Executive Committee, U.S. Conference of Mayors George Meany President AFL-CIO Mayor Arthur N aftalin Minneapolis Chairman, Community Relations Committee , U . S . Conference o f Ma yor s Gerald L. Phillippe \ Chairman of the Board General El e ctric Compa ny Wa lter Reuther President , Citizens Cru sad e Aga ins t Poverty President , Unit e d Auto Workers David Rockefeller President Chase Manhattan Bank James Rouse President, The Rouse Company President, Urban America Inc. �Steering Committee The Urban Coalition Page 2 Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin President Synagogue Council of America Bayard Rustin Executive Director A. Philip Randolph Institute Theodore Schlesinger President Allied Stores Corporation Asa T. Spaulding President North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company David Sullivan President Building Service Employees International Union Mayor James H. J. Tate Philadelphia President, National League of Cities John Wheeler President, Southern Regional Council President, Mechanics and Farmers Bank Roy Wilkins Chairman, Leaders hip Conference on Civil Rights Executive Director, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Whitney Young, Jr. Executive Director National Urban League \ � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Steering Committee The Urban Coalition Co-Chairmen: Mr. Andrew Heiskell Mr. A. Philip Randolph I, W. Abel President United Steelworkers Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. Atlanta Roy Ash President Litton Industries Mayor Joseph M, Barr Pittsburgh President, U.S. Conference of Mayors Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh Detroit Frederick J. Close Chairman of the Board Aluminum Company of America Mayor John F, Collins Boston Mayor Richard J. Daley Chicago Archbishop John F, Dearden President National Conference of Catholic Bishops Dr, Arthur Flemming President National Council of Churches Henry Ford II Chairman Ford Motor Company Joseph D. Keenan Secretary International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King President Southern Christian Leadership Conference Mayor John V. Lindsay New York Executive Committee, U.S. Con- ference of Mayors George Meany President AFL-CIO Mayor Arthur Naftalin Minneapolis Chairman, Community Relations Committee, U.S. Conference of Mayors Gerald L. Phillippe Chairman of the Board General Electric Company Walter Reuther President, Citizens Crusade Against Poverty President, United Auto Workers David Rockefeller President Chase Manhattan Bank James Rouse President, The Rouse Company President, Urban America Inc, Steering Committee The Urban Coalition Page 2 Rabbi Jacob P, Rudin President Synagogue Council of America Bayard Rustin Executive Director A. Philip Randolph Institute Theodore Schlesinger President Allied Stores Corporation Asa T. Spaulding President North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company David Sullivan President Building Service Employees Inter- national Union Mayor James H. J. Tate Philadelphia President, National League of Cities John Wheeler President, Southern Regional Council President, Mechanics and Farmers Bank Roy Wilkins Chairman, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Executive Director, National Associa- tion for the Advancement of Colored People Whitney Young, Jr. Executive Director National Urban League  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Box 13, Folder 21, Document 68 Box 13 Box 13 Folder 21 Folder topic: Race relations | racial matters | 1967